The Colour Pink
by TeeLights
Summary: Having to share a metallic pink common room with a ferret would make any Head Girl crazy. Hermione Granger is no exception. Read and review, please!
1. It Started With a Birthday Party

**The Colour Pink**

Chapter One

The living room at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place was covered with decorations. Balloons and streamers covered much of the floor and ceiling, and a large sign hanging on one of the walls sported the words 'Happy Birthday Harry!' in glittering red. It was hardly recognizable, compared to what it was before.

And in the room a party was taking place, for Harry Potter of course.

"Happy Birthday!" Hermione chirped as she raced into the room, having just flooed in. She sought out Harry in the small crowd of people and fairly leapt onto his back.

"Woah. Thanks." Harry replied once he'd regained his balance, and Hermione had let go of her hold. By this time, most of the room had diverted their attention to the two of them.

"Hermione!" Harry's eyebrows rose in surprise when he turned around and looked at his friend.

"Of course." Hermione shifted her weight onto one foot impatiently, a smile on her face.

Ron, who had been raiding the desert table, had stopped chewing mid-bit and had put down the piece of cake he was eating in order to run over and wrap a bear hug around the girl.

"Hello." Was Hermione's muffled response to Ron's hug, and greetings issued from the observing crowd before they went back to their previous conversations.

"It's great to see you, Hermione." Ron was beaming, and Hermione only smiled back before she turned her attention to Harry.

"Having a good party, Harry?" Hermione asked, her brown eyes smiling as she reached into her pocket.

"I was having a good party, but it just got about ten times better. I thought you were going to be in Italy with your parents for the rest of the week!"

"I was. They had so many tours planned…but then I went ahead and hurried the vacation along by tourguiding them around so that I could leave early, you know. Couldn't miss your birthday!" Hermione handed Harry a small rectangular present, wrapped with gold paper and tied with a red ribbon.

"Harry, you should've told me you wanted jewelry for your birthday." Ron poked fun at the size of the gift.

Hermione sent a glare at Ron from underneath her bushy bangs, and then whisked her wand out of her pocket. With a flick and a muttered incantation, the giftbox grew to its regular size(roughly the size of a shoebox).

Harry grinned as Ron gave him a look. Hermione lowered her wand and rocked up onto her tiptoes in excitement as she off-handedly explained: "I ran out of room in my trunk."

Her widened eyes were saying something else, however. They seemed to be screaming the words, 'Open it!'

And Harry did.

Wrappings left on the floor, Harry was left with something in each hand. In his left hand were a pair of shiny sleek Quidditch Goggles, a brand new design that would fit over his glasses, but it was what was in his right hand that held his green-eyed gaze.

"It's the very first copy. I just finished writing it last week. There's a chapter about your parents including pictures which I think you might like…" Hermione was anxiously awaiting Harry's reaction as was Ron, as he surveyed Hermione's first published work, _The Fall of You-Know-Who: What You Don't Know_. "Look, I even signed the inside cover for you."

Harry finally moved. A smile graced his face and he quickly laughed, blinking a few times to try and control his watering eyes.

"Hermione, it's perfect."

Hermione clapped her hands together in relief as Ron tried to take a look through the book and voicing; "What about me, Hermione? What did you put about me?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. Ron would never change. Harry was much the same as well, though she admitted he was finally getting some meat on his bones, considering You-Know-Who was gone for good and stress didn't eat at him every second of the day.

It was good to see everyone again, Hermione thought as she went around to greet and talk. But there was one thing she noticed about every single person there that for some reason she couldn't share with him or her; they were all overwhelmingly happy. She didn't know why she didn't feel that way, perhaps it was because she felt that she hadn't changed one bit. She was still Hermione Granger, the bushy-haired, smart friend of Harry Potter. And though receiving the Head Girl's badge a couple days before in the mail had overwhelmed her, it hadn't been with happiness.

"You're Head Girl?" Ron demanded incredulously from his spot seated in a compartment of the Hogwart's Express. Hermione pretended to take a moment to ponder his question before nodding meekly in response.

Ron couldn't seem to find an answer.

"It's not all that unbelievable, Ron." Harry offered from his seat opposite Ron, "She was Prefect and top of the class. She's probably the best witch Hogwarts has every seen."

Hermione gave a pointed look to Harry, but reddened all the same.

"Well…I know." Ron sputtered, and then resurfaced to ask his next question; "Who's Head Boy?"

Hermione shrugged, and Harry shook his head unknowingly.

"It's a wonder this school's run for so long." Ron shook his head, "When they get Boy-Wonder, Saviour of the Muggles and Magical alike, they don't even make him Head Boy."

"I'll see you two when we reach Hogwarts." Hermione suppressed a smile before heading towards the Head's Compartment.

_Who Is Head Boy? _She thought to herself, and started running through the list of seventh year boys she'd formed in her head. Absently, she straightened her Head Girl badge and pulled her untamed hair into a messy bun as she bit her lip in thought until she reached the compartment.

Nothing had prepared her for who was inside. She hadn't even added his name to the list.

"Granger." It wasn't even a greeting. It was a drawled form of acknowledgement coming from a mouth whose lips were curled into a sneer. Malfoy. Yes, he'd resigned himself to the fact that there was no doubt Hermione would be Head Girl. But he was not Happy about it.

Hermione stood in the compartment doorway, mouth slightly open in shock. There was no way Dumbledore would do this to her. She was in such denial that her mouth opened and she said; "Get out, Malfoy. Prefects are one over."

"Is my badge not shiny enough, Granger?" Malfoy clenched his teeth together in distaste when he said her last name again. But this time, as Hermione's eyes flew to the golden badge sporting the bold words Head Boy, her mouth was closed, her lips pressed together with determination.

Hermione knew that she had to be careful of what she said, if he really was Head Boy(and she was still suspicious that he'd stolen it from the real one), she didn't want to start of the year by igniting a fight that might end up in a duel.

Draco's narrowed glare moved away from Hermione, and his eyes softened as they settled to look out the window.

Teeth clenched, Hermione stubbornly shut the compartment door closed behind her, and sat down on the bench opposite Draco. It was hard to imagine a year working close with this…boy.

Although Hermione had to admit that his unslicked hair did well with him. She had no idea that if he let it down so, and allowed it to grow out a bit that it would start to curl slightly towards the tips. She started to wonder mildly if he still played quidditch, and if he practiced at home like Ron and Harry did at the burrow, and if he played shirtless too like her friends sometimes did. Her train of thought was broken, thankfully, when the compartment door slid open.

"Good, you're both here." McGonogall stepped into the compartment, her dress robes stiff, her strained face smiling.

Both Heads erupted at once, jumping up and voicing comments.

"I cannot work with him."

"I'll have you know I work alone."

"Harry deserves that badge and everyone knows it."

"Did you think I would welcome more responsibility?"

"His father is a Death Eater!"

"Hey!" This and a glare were thrown towards Hermione.

"We all know it's true." Hermione glared back fiercely.

McGonogall sent a stern look to the both of them, but neither caught it.

"I turned in my father, Granger." Draco hissed, eyes narrowing dangerously.

"What kind of person betrays his own family?" Hermione spat this without thinking. It was a low blow and she knew it, but at the moment she didn't care.

In the blink of an eye Draco had Hermione pressed to the side of the compartment, one hand at her throat, their noses inches apart.

"That's right, he was family. Now think what I would do to my _enemies_." And despite their position and the threat Malfoy'd just voiced, Hermione couldn't help but be completely conscious of how close they were.

"_Mister_ Malfoy!" McGonogall exclaimed. Malfoy let go of Hermione instantly, but his glare remained. "Dumbledore continues to keep you in his highest regards, and he seems to think that this is the best set up for Head Boy and Girl. If you cannot handle the chance he's offered you, Mister Malfoy, you may very well need to find yourself another school."

"I can handle it." Malfoy wrenched his glare away from Hermione, and tried to settle himself.

"Are you alright Miss Granger? Do you have any objections?"

_I never realized his eyes glistened like that._ Hermione found herself thinking. Her thoughts trailed off until it registered that McGonogall had questioned her. She cleared her throat, eyes narrowing in annoyance towards herself. "I'm fine. As long as Mister Malfoy doesn't make that a habit, I'm sure we will find some way to…work together."

Hermione enjoyed watched Malfoy clench and unclench his teeth as she performed her best McGonogall imitation.

"Good." McGonogall paused in order to survey her two seething Heads. "Your first order of business will be to draw up a Prefect Patrolling Schedule. The Prefects need to have this before they exit the train today. Dumbledore will meet with you in his office next Monday after you've had the first week to settle in. I will, however, need to meet with the both of you directly after dinner tonight. Come up to the Professor's table when you've finished."

Hermione nodded, aware of Malfoy doing the same beside her, and Mcgonogall nodded also before giving the two of them a pointed look before exiting the compartment.

The room was quiet. And Hermione could hardly stand it. But for some reason, she didn't know what to say to Malfoy first. She didn't know how to say anything civil to him, in fact. And she wondered mildly if he was having the same problem.

"Well, Granger, you heard McGonogall. Now write up that schedule and wake me when we reach Hogwarts." Malfoy was stretching out on the bench opposite her.

_Apparently he doesn't know how to be civil._ Hermione's eyes narrowed as she forced herself to look away from the taut smooth skin that was showing when his shirt rode up as he tried to get comfortable. Merlin, it was going to be a long train ride to school.


	2. Everything is Pink

**The Colour Pink**

Chapter Two

I do not claim ownership of anything in this wonderful world of Harry Potter.

"WHAT?!" Ron bellowed with a mouthful of chicken after the sorting that night.

Hermione scowled and shushed her friend.

"Malfoy!?" Ron ignored Hermione's shushing as his eyes searched wildly for the blond haired slytherin, "Dumbledore chose Malfoy over Harry?"

"Ron." Hermione said with warning in her voice.

"Let him, Hermione." Harry said quietly as Ron went on a rant about rather having McLaggen as Head Boy then Malfoy, "He hasn't been mad about anything in a long time. I sort of miss the way his neck and ears get all red."

Hermione rolled her eyes and waited until Ron had taken a breath. "Listen, McGonogall said that Dumbledore chose him, so I think he's trustworthy. So long as he doesn't try to touch me again."

"WHAT?!" Ron stood up this time, smashing his fork on the table as he tried to climb from the table while glaring at Malfoy.

Hermione grabbed his hand with hers and reached her other hand to hold his shoulder, ushering him to sit back down. "Ron, he would put you in detention for the whole year."

"He won't be able to once I'm through with him." Ron snarled. Harry bit back a snigger as Hermione concealed a smile.

"That's very noble, Ron. But really…don't." Hermione finally got Ron to settle back into his seat when she promised that she'd let him 'pummel the ferret' if he even so much as glared at Hermione again.

"Anyways, I'm done eating now. I need to meet with McGonogall. Meet you in the Common Room later?" Ron and Harry both nodded, and Hermione climbed from her spot and headed up to the Professors' table. She stopped a moment, and turned to call back, "Ron! Don't forget to show the first years' the way!"

She turned back towards the front of the Hall, but as she did so her eyes caught those of Malfoy, who was two tables from her but was strutting his way to the front as well. They were both wearing slight smiles on their faces until they realized what they were doing. Hermione scowled darkly, and turned her face forward.

"Follow me, please." McGonogall said once the two of them had reached her. "And I'll show you your new quarters."

"We each get our own living spaces?" Hermione asked with surprise in her voice as she obediently followed right behind McGonogall.

"Head Boy and Girl share their own dormitory." McGonogall answered.

Hermione felt a shudder make its way up her spine. She would be sharing dormitories with Malfoy. And only Malfoy.

"I'm not very good at sharing, Professor." Malfoy said this with as even of a voice as he could.

McGonogall gave a stark laugh and offered an amused glare to the students that were following her, "Last years Heads' weren't good at sharing either, Mister Malfoy."

Silence took over, seeing as neither Hermione nor Draco understood what McGonogall meant and neither of them was willing to admit it. So they followed their Professor through corridors and up stairways until they came to the top of a staircase that ended abruptly at a brick wall.

"I never understood why this staircase was here, Professor."

McGonogall gave a small smile to Hermione and turned to face the wall. "Yay for Hogwarts."

Malfoy's lip furled, and Hermione gave a confused look to McGonogall who explained briefly, "The Heads last year were very uncreative when it came to password making."

Hermione's eyes widened when a small staircase leading five stairs up appeared to their right, just beside the wall where a door waited on the newly shown platform.

McGonogall opened the door for the Heads and then let them go through.

Hermione stepped into the room, Malfoy pushing his way in behind her. She gasped, one hand flying to cover her open mouth as her brown eyes soared upwards and surveyed the entirety of the room.

The ceiling had to be at least twenty feet high and made purely of glass so that the sun shone through into the common room gorgeously. A huge fireplace stood at the far end of the room with a couch, loveseat and two plush chairs arranged nicely around a large intricately carved oak coffee table which stood couple of feet away from the hearth. And on the leftmost wall was a large worktable with sturdy chairs tucked underneath it. A large wide stone staircase took up what should have been the right hand wall, and it lead up three steps to a large platform, which showcased a door on either side. The left door had 'Head Boy' carved into it in gold, and the right-hand door read 'Head Girl'. It was truly stunning.

And stunning really could be the only thing to say. Not lovely, not beautiful…but stunning. For the colour of the entire room was an almost blindingly glittering pale pink.

"Everything is just so…_pink._" Malfoy spat out, "I'm not sure I can stand it."

"You're going to have to try, Mister Malfoy, and you can thank last year's Heads for this. One wanted a silver room, one wanted red…and this is what happened." McGonogall chuckled to herself before continuing, "Meals will be eaten in the Great Hall at regular times, baths may be taken in the Heads bathroom just down the hall from the Prefects' bath. It's the picture of the crying baby and you have to say 'Open Sesame' and then make it laugh in order to get in. Enjoy your evening."

And Hermione and Draco were left alone in their new common room, gaping at the colour of it all.

"This is the most hideous thing in Hogwarts." Hermione stated without thinking.

"Yeah." Draco agreed, but then sneered at Hermione before going on, "At least, it will be once you graduate."

Hermione threw Malfoy the meanest glare she could muster before she stomped her way to her room. For some reason Malfoy's comment had made her so upset that she wasn't awed by the normal red and gold colours of the room, the Queen sized bed in the middle of the room, the large vanity table right beside it, the double windows at the far end, the oversized cedar wardrobe that was already filled with her things, or even by the large bookshelves that were lined with all of her books.

She was trying to fight back tears.

The next morning as Hermione made her way to breakfast, the first thing on her 'To Do' list was to find Ginny Weasley. But only a couple steps into the Great Hall and Ron was standing right before her, his eyes narrowed but his face full of concern.

"We waited up for you until past midnight, Hermione. Where'd you go? We thought maybe you slipped in early or something, but Ginny said you never went to talk to her last night and Parvati said you never came to bed at all!" Ron kept on talking as Hermione kept on walking. Finally when they reached Gryffindor table and took seats on either side of Harry did Ron stop.

"So, uh…what's going on Hermione?" Harry asked when Hermione was trying to figure out what to say first.

"I've a new dorm." Hermione said, and both Ron and Harry's eyebrows raised, "Well, the- it's for the Heads."

"You mean you and Malfoy share a dorm?" Ron stopped his piece of toast as it was on its way to his mouth.

Hermione nodded, and had to hide yet another smile when Harry rolled his eyes just as Ron went off again. That Weasley boy was becoming way too predictable.

"First they give him a title he doesn't deserve and now they expect you two to share living quarters?! No way! Someone needs to have a talk with…" And Ron kept on. And on. And when Hermione was finished the two pieces of toast with jam that she usually ate for breakfast, she heaved an annoyed sigh and raised stern eyes to Ron's and cut him off mid-sentence.

"Do you not trust me, Ronald?"

"Of course. It's _him _I don't trust." Ron threw a glare towards the Slytherin table as he angrily tried to peel an orange.

"Then do you think I'm unable to defend myself?"

"You? You know every spell in the book." Ron scoffed at the question, clearly not understanding where she was going with this.

Hermione spotted Ginny entering the hall just then, and she gave a pleading look towards Harry who nodded, before climbing out of her seat and going to meet the younger Weasley. Harry took a deep breath before continuing to explain Hermione's point.

"She can deal with Malfoy, Ron." Harry took a sip from the goblet in front of him and ran a hand through his hair.

"What?" Ron looked up at Harry, confused, "Where'd that come from?"

"That's what she's trying to tell you." Harry said, and Ron only scoffed in response.

"Seriously, Ron. She can protect herself. And anyways, if she does need help she sure knows who to go to." Harry cracked a smile then. Ron glared at his black-haired friend, but Harry started to do a Ron-Ranting Imitation anyways.

"It's honestly the most hideous glittering pink I've ever seen, Gin." Hermione concluded her description of her new common room to Ginny as she settled into a new spot a few seats from Ron and Harry.

"It's sounds horribly wonderful." Ginny grinned, "When can I come see it?"

"Right after classes! Bring any homework you'll have even. There's a table in the common room that's massive, even though it is a rather disturbing colour." Hermione snickered as Ginny giggled and agreed.

"How is it with the ferret?" Ginny asked seriously once the giggles stopped. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"He's being what he's always been, and your brother is over-reacting. And I'll elaborate more when you come visit me after school, alright?" Hermione waited for Ginny's agreement and then nodded, "Good. Anyways, I have a class in ten minutes and I don't think I have my books with me, so I'll meet you here right after last class, alright?"

"For sure!"

Ginny was stuck in the doorway of the Heads' common room for a good five minutes, with her mouth agape, just looking around. Hermione had already set down her backpack on the table and had spread out all of her homework, and was now leaning against the back of the couch and watching Ginny with an amused look on her face to await the moment when Ginny would finally say something.

"Hermione," Ginny started slowly, her brown eyes sparkling as she continued to look around, "I'm not sure that you've noticed, but this room is very…_pink._"

Hermione smiled and slightly shook her head. "You didn't believe me earlier when I told you, did you?"

Ginny's eyes snapped to Hermione right away, and immediately the girl was back to normal. She swung her backpack up onto her shoulder, as she had been holding it by the strap in one hand and it had been hanging down by her side carelessly, and made her way to the homework table, "If I had told you that you would be moving into a dormitory that featured a metallic pink common room, would you have believed me?"

As Hermione went and sat down at the table, she cast Ginny a look as if to say, 'All right, you got me there.'

"Exactly." Ginny plopped her backpack onto the table and slid into one of the chairs. She quickly undid the zipper and pulled her books and parchment out, and after setting up her quill in the inkpot, she pushed her long red curls behind her ears and turned to Hermione, "Alright. Now, down to business; what's going on with Malfoy?"

"Nothing." Hermione shrugged. Then reconsidered, "Well, nothing different then normal. He's still a mean Slytherin…evil-person. But…"

Ginny tilted her head as if to coax Hermione on. But the brown-haired girl bit her lip, debating whether or not she should tell Ginny exactly how much Malfoy's insults got to her. Hermione herself still wasn't sure what it meant, and it was usually Hermione who figured these things out before Ginny…so she wasn't quite sure if she should be talking about her weird behaviour just yet.

"But what, Hermione?" Ginny insisted. Hermione's decision was made.

"But…I think he's more of a pansy then we had originally thought. I caught him examining the walls this morning." Hermione giggled at Ginny's expression, "I think he sort of likes this pink colour."

"Granger." Ginny scolded, she was under the impression that her friend was trying to cover something.

"I'm serious, Gin!" Hermione was about to continue when the door swung slowly open.

Draco was ushering Pansy in, but taking his time with it so that these words preceded him on his way in; "…sort of hideous, but the way the walls shine is kind of intriguing."

At that point the two Slytherins were all the way in the room. Pansy was caught up in the shock of the room, and Draco caught Hermione's brown eyes and his mouth closed, his eyes narrowing. Ginny was too busy trying not to giggle, and it was such a chore that she was glad her hair was down to help hide the extent to which her hand had to forcefully keep her mouth closed.

"This room is hideous enough, we don't need more scum to help bung it up." Malfoy sneered in Ginny's direction.

"Hypocrite." Hermione accused, eyes narrowed and flashing dangerously.

Pansy's dark eyes transitioned into threatening slits as she focused her attention on the two Gryffindors. Malfoy stepped forwards towards the two girls to say something, but Pansy reached out and stopped him.

"That's alright, Draco darling. Don't mind them, Weasley can sit there and clash with the walls if she wants too." Pansy's eyes softened considerably when they turned onto Draco, and she reached for his hand, "Now let's see that room of yours."

Hermione felt her stomach churn and something in her chest tighten as her lips curled. The child in her raged, and she made stupid faces behind the two Slytherins' backs as Malfoy lead Pansy to his room. When the Head Boy's door closed, Ginny collapsed on top of her homework books in a heap of curls and giggles.

"Pansy is so…" Ginny shook her head, she couldn't think of a suitable enough word for the way she felt about the snooty girl, "—I pretty much hate her."

_You have no idea. _Hermione thought.


	3. Dumbledore's Proposition

****The Colour Pink****

Chapter Two

I do not claim ownership of anything in this wonderful world of Harry Potter.

Hermione raised her hand out of habit, and that isn't usually a very good thing to do when you're tuning out a lesson.

"Yes, Miss Granger." Professor Snape called on her resignedly after a moment's pause.

"Pink." The bookworm's eyes were out of focus, her chin rested in her hand when she lazily answered this question. Quickly, a raging silence filled the room that awakened Hermione from her stupor, and her head rose up off her hand as she quickly tried to recall the question. "I mean, grey. The antidote would be pearly-grey if rotten."

"Ten points from Gryffindor for not paying attention during class." Snape drawled, though his eyes were slightly widened in surprise.

A small wave of snickers filtered through the room, and Hermione sat straighter in her seat as she felt her cheeks begin to burn a cute pink colour. The same colour of her common room, the same colour that she now noticed everywhere. For no specific reason at all she judged all shades of pink against each other and still found none to be as haunting as the one that made up the entirety of the Common room that she and Malfoy shared.

It was maddening.

Her brown eyes lowered, and as she made sure to listen to Professor Snape, she quickly peeked over her shoulder to see Ron and Harry's amused faces. They didn't understand yet, they hadn't been over to visit the room. But instead when she lifted her gaze, she was met with Draco's piercing grey eyes. And for the briefest of moments, for the fraction of a second that she allowed herself to peek behind her, the two shared a look of understanding.

It was scary.

Scary and maddening.

She would need to talk to Dumbledore about this tonight when her and Malfoy met him for the Heads' meeting. And then she would have to discuss it all with Ginny, of course, since Ron and Harry wouldn't understand the significance.

The first week had gone by smoothly and quickly, as long as you didn't count the times that Hermione had to try and control the Prefects alongside Malfoy. Their authoritative techniques were quite different, seeing as Hermione had a problem because she wouldn't scare people into doing what you wanted, and Malfoy had an even bigger problem since he would only scare people into doing his bidding.

Hermione walked around in a sort of fog for the rest of the day while she waited for the time to head over to the Headmaster's office. She had managed to pay attention in class so that she could answer questions, but she was oblivious to everything else that happened around her.

For example, Ron's staring. All day Ron had taken to gazing at Hermione, and she hadn't noticed even once.

"How about... Mister Weasley." Professor Flitwick's squeaky voice had called on Ron to answer a question, but the red-head had answered only by jumping slightly in his seat and struggling to find the words to say. Flitwick clucked his tongue, "Please pay attention, Mister Weasley."

The next part is what Hermione should have noticed, seeing as she sat beside Ron and Malfoy sat directly behind her. But when Malfoy leaned over to whisper something to Ron that caused her friend to turn red and turn around to glare threateningly Hermione had been too busy tuning out to hear that he'd uncaringly whispered, "What's the matter, Weaselbee? Mudblood got your tongue?"

And even though Hermione had missed that low blow, it had irked Ron so much that his temper seeped through all the rest of the day's classes until it finally boiled over when the trio reached the Gryffindor common room.

"He better watch it." Ron crowed confidently as he dropped his backpack at the bottom of the stairway that lead to the boys' dormitories so that he could flourish his arms menacingly as he spoke, "Next time that word comes out of his mouth I'll rip his vocal chords out."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Ron."

"I'll at least…frame him for tripping a first year or something." Ron settled. He was too busy clenching his teeth together to notice Hermione's open-mouthed look.

"As a Prefect, you will do no such thing!" Hermione commanded and scolded at the same time. Ron hunched down to sit on the bottom step of the stairway in defeat.

"He'll pay somehow." Ron promised scathingly. Hermione looked to Harry for help, but he kept quiet just as he had all day. This time, however, he was gazing off to the side with such a contemplative look on his face that Hermione forgot her annoyance with Ron.

"What's on your mind, Harry?" The bush-haired girl coaxed soothingly.

It took a few moments for Harry to realize the he was being spoken to, and then another few more passed so that he could collect his thoughts and answer fully; "Your book started selling last week, right Herm?"

"Yes, they were put on the shelves that day before we came here." Hermione confirmed even though she was confused.

"Have you gotten letters yet? From readers?" Harry shifted on his feet.

"Yes. A few arrive every morning." Hermione resisted the urge to ask where this was going.

"I got a letter this morning too, from one of you readers." Harry looked up at Hermione, "She says you got the facts about my family wrong, she mentioned that she didn't appreciate being left out of the tale."

Herimone's eyes narrowed, and she folded her arms. "I read over my manuscript at least thirty times, Harry. I forgot nothing. What was her name?"

"She signed it 'Miss Anonymous,'" Harry said with a shrug, "she said I needn't worry about that until we meet."

"You're going to meet some strange girl?" Ron asked, ears still red.

"She said she couldn't wait to see my reaction, but that she would sort it out with Dumbledore first. She signed the bottom 'See you soon!'" Harry finished. Ron 'hmphed' in a disagreeable manner as Hermione's eyes narrowed.

"Your reaction to what?" she demanded. Harry could only shrug in response, so Hermione continued; "I'll ask Dumbledore about it."

"Thanks." Harry said, but it went unheard when all of a sudden Hermione jumped slightly in her place.

"My meeting with Dumbledore! I almost forgot!" So with a wave to Harry and a warning to keep out of trouble for Ron, she spun with her backpack over one shoulder and made her way from the Gryffindor common room to Dumbledore's office.

"Sorry to make you wait, Professor!" Hermione proclaimed once inside his office. She sat in the chair the Headmaster offered to her with a gesture, and was ignoring the sneer that Malfoy was throwing her way from where he sat in the chair beside hers.

"Thank you for joining us, Hermione." Dumbledore gave a small smile as he sat down on the other side of the desk, "I was just about to explain to Draco an idea that I had for Halloween."

Hermione nodded, unsure of whether to glance at Malfoy or not. Thankfully, Dumbledore only paused for a moment to take a breath before he continued on, so Hermione just kept her eyes on him

"I've decided there will be no Halloween feast this year." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled with this statement, but Hermione felt sort of let down by the idea. She stole a look to Malfoy and found him to be shaking his head in disbelief.

"But it's the most anticipated feast of the year, Professor." Draco tried to sound like he wasn't arguing as he protested. "Since there's hardly anyone here for the Christmas Feast, it's the Halloween one they all go crazy about."

"I agree with Malfoy, Professor." Hermione hated to admit it.

"His name is Draco, Hermione." Dumbledore corrected kindly, and Hermione flushed pink while he went on, "and I mean to replace the feast with a ball."

"A ball!" Hermione repeated, her eyes glazing over as she remembered the excitement of the last ball Hogwarts hosted in her fourth year.

"A ball." Draco repeated at the same time, slumping farther down in his seat as he recalled Pansy's clinginess all throughout the last ball. That was one pink monstrosity he really couldn't bear seeing again.

"A costume ball?" Hermione couldn't hide the excitement in her voice.

"Not quite." Dumbledore's smile widened, "A Masquerade. Costumes or dress clothes may be worn, as long as accompanied by a mask."

"Ooooh." Hermione breathed in a way that was usually never associated with the bookworm.

"Do you think it might still be anticipated by the students, Draco?" Dumbledore questioned.

"Yeah, by all the girls." Malfoy replied with distaste.

"Will if the girls are going, the boys will anticipate it too." Hermione scowled at Malfoy.

"Good, so it's settled. I will be announcing the ball at dinner tonight, and extend an invite to students Third Year and above. And of course I'll have to mention the special Hogsmaede weekend coming up so that those who need ball-wear might acquire some." Dumbledore stood as he said this, "I suggest you two begin planning. The masquerade now lies less then two months away."

The far away look in Hermione's eyes disappeared, and Malfoy demanded; "What was that?"

"Head Boy and Girl always organize the special feasts and events, this responsibility is bound to your badges." Dumbledore started to usher Malfoy to the door, "And make sure you work together, and talk often. Things are usually forgotten when this task is divided in half. Now, if you'll excuse us Draco, I must speak with Hermione alone for a moment."

"Professor," Hermione voiced, her annoyance of having to work with Malfoy pushed aside when Dumbledore had closed the office door in the Slytherin's furious face, "you know about the girl and the letter, then?"

Hermione watched as the Headmaster nodded while moving back to his desk and sitting back down. He cleared his throat, "I received word from this individual this morning, and she informed me of her letter to Harry."

Hermione opened her mouth to ask a question, but Dumbledore held up a hand, "Please, Hermione, I must affirm some facts before I tell you who she is. Tell Harry to try and forget about the letter for now, I expect it will be a couple more months before the opportunity arises for their meeting."

Dumbledore paused pensively before continuing, his eyebrows raised as he looked pointedly at Hermione, "It would be best if you let this go for the time being as well. As some muggles might say, right now you have 'Bigger fish to fry.'"

Hermione couldn't agree more as she bit back a frown. Thanking Dumbledore quickly, Hermione smiled at him and then stood, hoisting her backpack up on her shoulder and then headed out of the office to ready herself for dinner.

But not before Dumbledore called out behind her, "Speaking of fried fish, I hope you're in the mood for salmon!"


	4. In Which Draco is Afraid of Ron

**The Colour Pink**

Chapter Four

I do not claim ownership of anything in this wonderful world of Harry Potter.**  
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"How's the planning coming?" Ginny asked quietly at dinner a couple of nights later.

Hermione had to tear her eyes from Lavender's long, silky, tame hair and push aside the feeling of what she wouldn't admit was jealousy in order to concentrate on what her red-headed friend had asked. The seventh year adopted a mournfully playful look; "What planning?"

Voice low to be sure that Ron wouldn't hear them discussing Malfoy, Hermione continued seriously, "Malfoy keeps telling me to just do it myself. And even though I would love to do it myself, McGonogall would know we weren't cooperating since he wouldn't be able to have any input on the Masquerade updates during our meetings with her."

Ginny sighed, and then narrowed her eyes in mock seriousness, "Next time you want to plan stuff, let me know and I'll sit on him so he'll stay there and listen."

"Gin!" Hermione giggled, making sure Ron was still oblivious of what they were talking about since it was annoying having to deal with Ron's fuming every time Malfoy was mentioned. "Let's just go to my common room and talk."

Ginny agreed, and just reached for one more cookie before following Hermione towards the doors to the Great Hall.

"Oiy!" Hermione turned to see Harry calling to them and climbing out of his spot at the table as well, "If you're heading to your new dorm, Hermione, I'd like to see it."

Ginny sighed, and Hermione offered an overplayed pout to her before nodding enthusiastically to Harry.

"Hey!" They stopped once more and waited as Ron caught up to them as well, "So I hear there's something pink I need to see."

"Want to see." Ginny snapped, not unkindly.

Ron and Harry reacted in just about the same way to the room as everyone else had, except they were in their shocked stage for a considerably less amount of time.

"This room really is horrible." Ron observed. Hermione raised her eyebrows in his direction.

"Just, don't stand too close to the walls, mate." Harry jokingly covered his eyes as if the clash between the walls and Ron's hair was blinding him.

Hermione drew her wand from her pocket and non-verbally cast Incendio in the direction of the fireplace. And sure enough, a crackling fire started to blaze happily within the marble hearth. Ron had gone to inspect the wall colour closer, and Hermione wondered if perhaps it was just a boy thing considering he was the second male she'd seen do that.

Realizing that she hadn't done much 'living' in her common room yet, Hermione went in search of things for them to do. She passed by Harry, not noticing the way he had nervously approached Ginny and ushered her to sit on the couch with him.

Aha! A smile lit her face up as Hermione's rummaging rewarded her when she found her Wizard's Chess set at the bottom of her trunk. Hurrying back out of her room and into the common room noisily, Hermione placed her findings on the table just as Ron turned from his wall inspection.

"Ah! Just what I'm in the mood for!" Ron clapped his hands together and peered over at Harry, "You ready to lose, Potter?"

"Not this time, Weasley." Harry replied with a goofy grin on his face as Ginny got up from the couch and hurried to Hermione's side.

"Your room, please. Now." Ginny demanded, her brown eyes sparkling. Unnoticed by Ron, Ginny practically dragged Hermione by the wrist up the few steps and to the right to enter Hermione's room.

"What?!" Hermione implored.

"I'm going to the ball with Harry!" Ginny squealed, taking Hermione's hands into her own and bouncing excitedly. She paused her bouncing to bring a hand to her heart as she continued; "He was so sweet, saying he meant to ask me when the ball was announced, but he was too afraid I'd refuse…"

Hermione tilted her head to one side slightly, her eyebrows furrowed a bit as she recalled Dumbledore's announcement. "Didn't you tell me that if Harry asked you, you were going to say no?"

"I was going to say no." Ginny's serious and abrupt reply was quickly replaced with a large smile and the following words; "It's a good thing he waited a couple of days to ask me."

Hermione rolled her eyes playfully and voiced her happiness for the two of them; "I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time together."

Ginny let go of Hermione's hands then as she closed her eyes and whirled herself about with an invisible dance partner to the sound of her own humming. The smile Hermione had offered Ginny stayed frozen on her face as she retreated to her bed and took a seat on it. But she couldn't help the small pang of jealousy that crept into her chest as she surveyed Ginny's joyous performance due to the fact that she was going to be attending a fancy ball with the only man she wanted to go with.

"Don't worry, 'Mione. I'm sure Ron isn't as much of a dunce as last time. He'll ask you." Ginny had paused in her dance to say this comfortingly before twirling off again.

Hermine felt a shiver course through her. And it wasn't because Ginny had sort of known what she was thinking, nor was it because she was anticipating that moment, it was because she had found herself wishfully thinking that perhaps the Heads would have to attend the ball together.

_For the purposes of house unity and event organization._Hermione tried to give herself logical reasons to why she had hoped to attend with Malfoy, but there was no fully denying the fact that Hermione was attracted to, and spent way too much time thinking and worrying about, Draco Malfoy.

But it wasn't until the following Saturday morning that the most intriguing and curious event, involving both Hermione and Draco, took place.

For some reason Hermione was fully awake in her bed looking out her window and watching the sunrise. So it couldn't have been far passed seven o'clock in the morning.  
>She wasn't sure why she couldn't sleep, and she wasn't sure how long she had been lying there looking out the windows like that, but she was quite sure that she was getting bored of lying in bed and doing nothing.<p>

Pushing the blankets back, Hermione rolled out of bed, slipped her feet into pair of fuzzy slippers, and padded over to the window. She pushed aside a part of the curtain in order to get a better view of the sunrise, but a latch she hasn't noticed before caught her eyes. It was a latch that kept the two windows together, and when she undid it, the floor length windows swung all the way inwards to give the impression of a doorway which lead to a small but quaint balcony.

Hermione shuffled cautiously onto the balcony, peering over the railing just long enough to see that the courtyard stood directly beneath her, though it had to be at least eight stories straight down. A shiver of displeasure coursed through Hermione, and she retreated back into her room. She wasn't all the quiet fond of heights.

Hermione decided then to head over to the Head's Bathroom for a nice long relaxing bath. Since no one in their right mind would be up that early on a Saturday, Hermione just through a house coat over her nightdress, gathered her toiletries and an outfit in her arms, and shuffled with her slippered feet out of her room, through the common room, into the corridors and down the hall to the bathroom.

"Open Sesame." Hermione voiced once she approached the picture of the baby, and before she had time to think of something funny, the baby just took one look at Hermione and laughed. _I know I don't look the best in the morning, but still…_Hermione's eyebrows were narrowed in slight hurt as the door swung open and she stepped in.

The sight that met her eyes took her breath away. A tall figure stood in the middle of the room, torso bare as his arms were raised above his head entangled in a shirt he was trying to put on, he had on faded blue jeans that hadn't been done up yet, so they hung loosely on his hips and revealed the black boxers underneath. Hermione was too busy staring to say anything or move at all before the boy figured out his shirt and pulled it over his taut skin and lean muscles by the hem.

Draco Malfoy's hair was still wet; half of it sticking out in all directions while one part was plastered to the side of his scowling face. As soon as he realized it was Hermione who had barged in, his face softened and his eyebrows raised.

Hermione held up a hand, looking away from Malfoy, "I know, I know. 'Get out you filthy mudblood' and all that fun stuff. I'll be back in ten minutes."

"All I was going to say was 'Nice hair.'" Malfoy's voice stopped her from completely exiting the room, "I'll be finished in a minute. You can wait in here if you like."

Hermione turned back and flushed pink, acutely and suddenly aware of her own sorry state. She hugged her things closer to her stomach and stepped farther in so that she was able to close the door behind her. And then her embarrassment faded when she realized what had just happened.

"Are you feeling alright, Malfoy?"

He had just finished doing up his jeans and was reaching for a pair of socks as he tried to think of a suitable answer, "Yes. I've made a decision."

"Congratulations…" Hermione said uncertainly. Malfoy sneered at her.

"I'm going to try being nice to you."

Hermione was at a loss for words, "Why?"

"Mostly because it will confuse Weasley." Malfoy was pulling his socks on now. "And a stuttering Weasley is always better then a violent Weasley."

Hermione's eyebrows rose as she gazed at Malfoy, "You're afraid of Ron?"

"I'm afraid _for_Ron." Malfoy immediately corrected with a scowl.

Hermione was still slightly shocked, so she didn't comment this. Of course, it should also be taken into consideration that Hermione was reveling in Malfoy's civil ways, whatever his motivation behind them, and didn't want to test their limits. So she stood there, trying not to gawk at the way his shirt clung to his still-moist torso, until a thought crossed her mind:

"Does this mean you're finally going to start to help plan the ball?" She had somehow managed to keep the hope she was feeling from bubbling over into the question. She was answered by a very pointed look that portrayed perfectly Malfoy's meaning. No, he was not going to help. Hermione sighed; "We're in charge of the ball, Malfoy, we have to take responsibility for it."

"Why can't we do what everyone else does when they're in charge of things?" Malfoy all but whined as he reached for his shoes, " and hire someone to do our work?"

"Unless you're willing to pay them, there's no way we could do that." Hermione was starting to get a little impatient.

"I knew you would say that. But Granger, most girls would do anything if I asked them…nice enough." Malfoy said smugly.

Hermione paused to look at the Slytherin with disgust, "You want to seduce girls into doing our work?"

Malfoy kept quiet, concentrating on tying his shoes. When he was finished, he took a deep breath and surveyed Hermione before shrugging, "Or we could just ask the Prefects."

Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but stopped herself before she could say anything. He had a point, the girl Prefects at least would love the opportunity of being able to arrange the school ball. Of course, Hermione herself would probably have to take over the more important tasks, like acquiring a band and such, but all of the smaller more trivial things could be taken care of and reported back to the Heads in time for their meetings with McGonogall.

"We could just ask the Prefects," Hermione agreed with Malfoy with wide eyes, as she was visibly impressed with his suggestion. "I'll still take care of the bigger things, but they could deal with the theme, decorations, refreshments…"

"I've got the band covered." Malfoy announced when Hermione trailed off. His back was turned as he was picking up all of his things, so he didn't catch Hermione's confused look right away, but when he did notice it he repeated; "I've got the band covered."

Hermione could only stutter. It was hard not to be flustered by Malfoy's suddenly civil behaviour and amazing suggestions, but now that he had confidently announced that he 'got the band covered.' Hermione was finding it hard to form the question she wanted to ask.

"Settle down," Malfoy frowned as he made his way passed Hermione to the door of the bath, "Father donated a heap of money to the Weird Sisters before I betrayed him, so they owe me one."

And if nothing else of this whole ordeal had affected Hermione, this definitely caught her attention. A meek and unenthusiastic: "Wonderful." was what issued from her mouth as Malfoy nodded and left the room, and Hermione wasn't even sure that he had heard it.


	5. The Epic Search for a Dress

**The Colour Pink**

Chapter Five

I do not claim ownership of anything in this wonderful world of Harry Potter.

The following Saturday, Hermione didn't get up nearly as early. Though it was the day they were to visit Hogsmeade, Hermione couldn't help but stay snuggled in her bed until the last possible moment; which made itself known when Ginny entered the room and a bat-bogey hex purposefully whizzed by Hermione's head threateningly.

"Rise and shine!" Ginny sounded much more happy then she acted as she tore around Hermione's room and rooted through her wardrobe to find an outfit for her friend, "We have ten minutes until the carriages leave, so get _up_, Hermione."

Grudgingly, Hermione rolled out of bed and allowed Ginny to choose her clothes and fix her hair (as best she could with only ten minutes to work with). Hermione yawned as Ginny pushed her into her bathroom so that she could splash cold water onto her face and brush her teeth.

"No time for make-up." Ginny sighed regretfully, even the Hermione didn't protest at all as she yawned again, tugging at her bushy bangs lazily while gazing at them bitterly in the mirror. Ginny huffed impatiently and grabbed her friend's wrist, "You're wasting time."

Ginny let go of Hermione's wrist once they were out of the bathroom, and as she zoomed ahead to find some footwear for Hermione she called over her shoulder for her brown-haired friend to make sure she had her purse and money with her.

Hermione was just slipping her heavy purse onto her shoulder as Ginny came back with a pair of sandals that Hermione easily slid her feet into. Ginny stood backed slightly and surveyed the slouching Hermione to make sure they weren't forgetting anything. But everything seemed to be in order, and Ginny nodded, "Alright, you're ready. You look wonder—well, your clothes look wonderful, but the rest of you…eh, could be worse."

Hermione was too tired to register what Ginny had just said, and so she wasn't offended as they started off with Ginny towing along a yawning Hermione by the hand.

"You need to start to sleep at night again, Hermione." Ginny said with concern. And it was true.

The entire past week had been extremely busy for Hermione. Malfoy had recruited six Prefects to plan the ball, but he wanted nothing to do with them so it was Hermione who they ran to if they had an idea or a suggestion. They did have some awesome ideas, but they had no boundaries. So Hermione was roused from sleep on more then one occasion, bothered during class, hounded through break times so much that she had missed breakfast three times and lunch once, and her homework times were interrupted so much that she had taken to bringing her books to bed with her and working on her assignment in the wee small hours of the morning.

And of course we can't forget that she was dealing with a newly confused Ron because of Malfoy's behaviour, the stress of _still_ not being asked to the ball with who she was pretty sure she wanted to go with, even though random daydreams of someone other then Ron asking her to the ball had started to be regular occurrences, as well as having Harry continue to ask discreetly and subtly about the girl who wrote him the letter. Harry was good at that too, considering he was still able to fall behind an innocent hand-raised defense when Hermione tried to accuse him of not letting go of the letter for the time being like Dumbledore said.

Ginny ended up pulling Hermione all the way to the front of the school and then ushered her into a carriage where Harry and Ron were waiting. Hermione merely made a noise in their direction before curling up in her place and napping for the trip into Hogsmeade.

"Hermione?" Ginny called when they got there, "'Mione."

The sleeping Head Girl started before getting up with a scowl. She complied though, going wherever Ginny lead. They lost Harry and Ron early on, and though Ginny's sixth year friends had begrudgingly said they were willing to help Hermione buy a dress, Ginny had graciously thanked them and sent them on their way.

"We're shopping for your ball gown, Hermione." Ginny was looking through a rack of dresses in one of the stores when she said this, "You were excited about this yesterday, what happened?"

Hemrione was leaning against the rack, being sleepily miserable. She was facing the change rooms and her eyes were enviously surveying the pretty girls with their sleek hair and perfect make up each time they stepped out of the change room to model their dresses.

"Will you at least pretend to look?" Ginny's eyes were narrowed in frustration; Hermione's attitude was finally getting to her.

"Ginny, I honestly don't see the point." Hermione tried her best not to whine, but she wasn't totally convinced that it had worked.

"This coming from the only person on the planet who sees the point in S.P.E.W." Ginny rolled her eyes, clearly not taking her friend seriously.

"Don't get me started on that—"

"I wasn't trying to." Ginny paused for a moment to clear her thoughts, take a deep breath, and wipe the scowl from her face, "Just tell me what's wrong."

"I don't see the point." Hermione repeated slowly with an edge to her voice.

"But why not?" Ginny replied, copying Hermione's tone of voice.

"I'm never going to be as pretty as them." Hermione gestured off-handedly to the girls modeling their dresses in the mirrors.

"Hermione, you're very pretty."

"I know, I know, _naturally pretty._" Hermione scoffed, "I hear it from my parents enough. Why do you think they wouldn't let me get my teeth fixed before?"

"Well then the ball is a very good opportunity." Ginny moved on to a different rack of dresses, and Hermione followed her lazily while the red-head continued, "At the Yule Ball in your fourth year you were downright stunning, Hermione."

"That took me hours to do, Gin." Hermione sighed, "And anyways, the very next day it was as if everyone forgot, I was just the Know-It-All again."

"Are you whining to me, Hermione?"

"Maybe I am." Hermione scowled, "I'm tired of having everyone overlook me, but I know it's stupid to spend three hours every morning just trying to make my hair look decent."

"So you've resorted to whining?" Ginny couldn't help but give a small lopsided grin to her confused friend.

"I didn't mean to. But can't you see how pointless it is now?" Hermione folded her arms as she lazily surveyed the dresses Ginny was going through.

"Are you giving up?" Ginny stopped leafing through the garments in order to give Hermione a confounded look. "Did you even try to research it? I'm sure—oh..sorry."

Ginny stepped out the way in order to let Lavender and Parvati pass by, their heads close together as they giggled. Hermione was just about to roll her eyes at them when Lavender looked towards Ginny: "Sorry to interrupt. Thanks."

"Anyways," Ginny continued as the girls still passed, "There are some 'beautifying' spells out there. Mind you they're extremely difficult, s'why witches still use make-up and basically only use hair-drying spells. Well, only some of us use hair-drying spells because they do tend to give you some more volume and that's not really something that you'd be wo—"

"Excuse me." Lavender had turned and marched the step or two back towards Ginny and Hermione, and was now eyeing Hermione with her eyebrows raised, "Hermione? Talking about 'beautifying' spells?"

Parvati had followed her brown-haired friend and was now eyeing Hermione and Ginny with a look that matched Lavender's. Ginny coughed, and dropped her eyes from Lavender's face to flash Hermione a look as if to say 'I'll let you take this one.'

"Well…" Hermione paused, gathered all of her confidence and self-dignity before looking Lavender in the eye, "For the ball, of course, I'll get a whole makeover done. But I'm trying to look at all the options that are available to me in order to make the makeover changes…stick."

"You mean you actually care about your appearance?" Parvati looked genuinely surprised when she asked this, and didn't notice the look of hurt defensiveness that overtook Hermione's face.

"No one asked you." Ginny snapped as her eyes narrowed.

Parvati crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "I didn't mean it to be offensive. It's just…you usually spend two minutes in the bathroom every morning, Hermione. I've timed you."

"But," Lavender cut in right after Parvati was finished, not allowing Hermione or Ginny to speak even though both of them had lots to say, "if you were in the mood for a total and complete make over, Parvati and I would _love_ to help."

"I would?" Parvati said quietly, but Ginny and Hermione heard it anyways.

"Yes, Yes!" Lavender cut off Ginny and Hermione again, brandishing her hand lazily in front of Parvati's confused expression as her own eyes widened excitedly, "We'll make you over, Hermione."

"That does sound rather exciting…" Parvati was even grinning about it now. Ginny's eyebrows were narrowed with skepticism, but Hermione agreed, though somewhat hesitantly.

"Good. Well, you need a dress then, for the ball." Hermione rolled her eyes at Lavender's obvious statement.

But it was easier said than done.

The four girls raided all of the clothing stores in Hogsmeade, and Lavender pushed and ordered and demanded like no tomorrow. Hermione could hardly get a word in edgewise.

"You look like a bubble." Lavender's nose scrunched up when Hermione stepped out of a change room wearing a white sequined gown with a poofy skirt.

"Blah." Parvati looked as if she'd just bit into a lemon when Hermione was showing off a midnight blue flowing gown with a simple empire waist.

"Too much like a potato sac." Lavender sighed at the sight of Hermione in a red, 1920's inspired knee length dress.

"What are you, an upside down tree?" Parvati flicked the end of Hermione's brown hair as she modeled a fitted green dress with leaf-like ruffles.

"Perfect!" Lavender breathed, and Parvati sighed in agreement when Hermione waddled out of the change room wearing a black skin tight dress, trying to stop the slit that ran up to mid thigh from showing anymore of her leg. Hermione's arms were crossed firmly over her chest for fear that she might accidentally become exposed, and she was heatedly glaring at the two girls.

Ginny voiced her thoughts when she clearly and bluntly stated; "She looks like a tramp."

"You're just not used to seeing Hermione wear—"

"—such trampy dresses?" Ginny cut in, eyes narrowed, "I know."

"Listen, Lavender, Parvati, we appreciate your help, but I think we should go our separate ways. I can find my own dress." Hermione masked her frustration as best she could.

"Hermione, no!" Lavender whined, then pursed her lips defensively, "It's just harder when the person buying a dress is close-minded."

"Close-minded?" Hermione's eyebrows rose; "My only rule was that I will not wear pink!"

Lavender rolled her eyes. "Well, at least try on the other two dresses we have in there for you."

Hermione could hardly argue that last request, and she somehow managed to waddle back to the change room.

"Oh, this was taken then…sorry." A girl had just set a few dresses atop the ones Hermione had hanging in the change room. Hermione only raised her eyebrows at the girl before stepping aside so that the girl, who had quickly taken hold of her dresses, could exit.

"Sorry again," the girl mumbled, and Hermione stepped into the small room.

After casting a rather disagreeable look at herself in the mirror, Hermione turned to reach for the next dress.

She froze when her eyes rested on a dress she was sure wasn't there before. _The other girl must've left this by mistake,_ Hermione thought, _I should give it back._ But she was hesitant, for it was captivating.

Quickly, Hermione struggled out of the black dress and slipped on the new one. Without even looking at herself in the mirror, Hermione went to show the others with her head held high. Not that she needed to, she already knew that she was going to buy the dress anyways.

Twirling to a stop in front of her panel of judges, Hermione couldn't help but smirk in response to their raised eyebrows and opened mouths. Not even Lavender could find something to say. Finally, and at the same time, all three girls nodded.

Yup. It was the perfect dress. 


	6. Frustrations and White Gold

**The Colour Pink**

Chapter Six

I do not claim ownership of anything in this wonderful world of Harry Potter.

Hermione Granger was very frustrated. Without thinking, she had allowed Lavender and Parvati to share her table in potions so that they could discuss what should be done for Hermione's makeover. What she hadn't known was that 'discussing' meant that they would look at her and talk to each other about her as if she were only a statue.

"I really think her hair would look better if we cut it off at the shoulders and rounded the bangs around the face. And layers. You need to have layers with such a wide face." Lavender had only glanced up once as she said this, and the look was only for verification purposes.

"I still say we lighten and lengthen. Blonde can make anything better. Perhaps we should plump up those curls too." Parvati gave a sidelong glance with raised eyebrows to Lavender and didn't acknowledge Hermione at all.

The worst part for Hermione was that even if she wanted to vent her frustration (which she did) she would have to do it as nicely as possible for fear that Lavender and Parvati would just tell her to do it herself. Hermione's eyes narrowed, and her lips clamped together stubbornly. She could do it. She could put up with it. After all, she'd put up with Ron's stupid comments for seven years.

Although, she never really kept her mouth shut when he said stupid things.

"Blonde against that skin tone? You're joking, Parvati." Lavender said this with such detest in her voice that Hermione could no longer keep quiet.

"Listen. Stop talking as if I'm not here, and listen. I will not have my hair length changed drastically, I will not dye it, and for goodness sake the _last_thing I need is more curl." Hermione's eyes flashed dangerously. She had left it unsaid that she took offense to their comments, but had hoped that her pointed glare had spoken up for her. Parvati and Lavender had stopped what they were doing to look at her with wide eyes, and Hermione triumphantly returned to crushing her gurdy roots.

"She's right, she doesn't need any more curls. There's no need to make a head that big appear bigger." Parvati had turned to Lavender to say this, and Hermione's mallet slipped from her hand and fell to the floor.

Her glaring went unnoticed by the two girls, who's comments weren't as loud but were still annoying and just as she turned towards where her mallet had fallen someone walked into her, jarring her shoulder. Her dark scowl happened upon Draco Malfoy's face, and a relieved rush sped through her body. Finally, here was someone she could snap at and not feel bad about doing so.

"Sorry Granger, I stumbled over this thing someone must've—" Malfoy mumbled this almost without thinking as he bent and picked up Hermione's mallet. His eyebrow raised when he found _H.G._inked onto one side of the handle, "Here."

"What are you doing, walking around like that?" Hermione snatched the mallet back and tried not to be rude since Malfoy was being civil to her. Malfoy's eyes shifted to the blackboard where the ingredients for the potion were written.

"Trying to read the ingredients." Malfoy squinted his eyes, his mouth scrunched into an unsatisfied pout, "Am I the only one who thinks Snape writes as if he were a baboon standing on his head?"

Malfoy shrugged before moving passed Hermione, and the girl had to stop herself from smiling at the image that had formed into her mind. Her eyes narrowed again when she turned back to her workstation and remembered how frustrated she was. And she couldn't even vent it on Malfoy.

The lesson didn't get much better, in the end she had to pry her gurdy roots off the table with the flat edge of her knife because she'd pounded them so hard with the mallet.

By the time the Prefect meeting came along after dinner that night, Hermione had cooled off. She wasn't sure what helped the most; finding out that Harry and Ron had finished all their homework already and hadn't asked to copy anything for once, listening to Ginny rant for a good fifteen minutes about how Parvati said something about trying to get rid of Ginny's freckles and what she would do if Parvati even tried to do it, or screaming to the pink walls of her common room as soon as classes were finished.

Either way, she was no longer frustrated. However, two hours into the meeting and sleepiness was becoming an issue. All of the boys had zoned out by a half hour into the meeting, Malfoy impressively paying attention for fifteen minutes longer then any of them before a loose thread on the hem of his sweater caught his attention. Even Hermione herself was finding it hard to focus.

"We've decided that the colour pink will be part of the theme—" Emily, the spokesprefect for the six that were organizing the dance, said. Hermione immediately focused.

"Pink? Pink's not a Halloween colour. You can't use pink for a Halloween dance." Hermione said this with finality, careful to keep from sounding desperate.

It was the first time Hermione had downright shot down one of the girls' ideas, and everyone had turned their eyes towards her. Emily blinked a couple of times, glancing at a couple of her co-organizers to gain confidence before turning her flushed face back to Hermione.

"With all due respect," –Malfoy made an undistinguishable noise from his place beside Hermione, which she ignored for the moment so that Emily could continue, "this isn't a Halloween dance, at least not traditionally. So we agreed that we didn't _have_to use traditional colours. We haven't chosen a bad pink either, it honestly will look really good—"

"She has a point, Granger." Malfoy said reasonably before Hermione could disagree again.

"Everything we've ordered have been with the colours we've chosen. I'm not sure if there would be time for a new order to come in, with the dance only four days away." Emily continued and Hermione sighed with resignation. If she told them to change the colours now not only would the Prefects be annoyed with her, but Malfoy would look like the 'Nice' Head.

"Yes, yes of course. I'm sure it will look wonderful." Hermione forced a smile, and then a genuine one followed with Emily's relieved smile as she sat back down. A swell in conversation rose as everyone started shifting in their seats, and Hermione assumed the meeting had come to a close; "Well, if that's the last—"

"One more thing!" Emily jumped up from her chair again, and groans sounded as she did so, "I just wanted to make sure about the whole 'Opening the Dance' tradition."

"How do you mean?" Hermione said, too tired to figure it out.

"Well, the Heads will open the dance by dancing together." Emily's wide eyes shifted from Draco to Hermione, awaiting their reaction.

Hermione's mouth opened, but she couldn't seem to find a good enough reason to have to forfeit that tradition. Or maybe, by the sudden pounding of her chest, it was that she was trying not to think of a way to get out of it.

"I don't think that would be fair." Malfoy said this calmly, as Ron audibly agreed.

"How do you mean?" Emily said in perfect Hermione fashion.

"We haven't done nearly as much work as you and your five colleagues have to put this dance together. I propose that the six of you and your dates open the dance." Malfoy stood and folded his arms. Emily looked confused and opened her mouth with a rebuttal but Hermione cut in;

"Of course! After all, this isn't a _Traditional_Halloween Dance." Hermione smiled, silently praising Malfoy's pig-headed brilliant thinking.

"Right." Emily nodded, and when she turned towards her friends an excited smile graced her face.

"See you all at the Dance!" Hermione called, and the students filed out of the room. Hermione turned to Malfoy, "Good thinking."

"As always." Malfoy said with an arrogrant grin and Hermione scowled as he waggled his eyebrows at her before leaving.

"Git." Ron spat after Malfoy, but careful to say it quietly enough that he wouldn't be heard. Hermione couldn't help but smile as she noticed this before gathering all her things together.

"You know what this means?" Hermione mused as Ron sat on one of the desks while waiting for her, "Not even a tradition can make someone dance with me."

"I'll dance with you." Ron sounded pleased with himself when he said this, and Hermione looked at him with raised eyebrows, waiting. But that was all he said. That was the closest he was going to get to ever asking her to the dance. Hermione was surprised that she wasn't as upset as she assumed she would be, and let herself smile as she decided to have a little fun with the poor unknowing boy.

"If you can find me." With a girly giggle, Hermione turned and left the room with the red-head close behind calling out;

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"I still can't believe you would play my brother like that." Ginny said with a giggle, "It's awesome."

"Ginny, seriously, if you can't stay quiet I need you to leave." Hermione was at the end of her rope, again. The dance was only two days away now and Hermione had so much homework to finish before then that her head was pounding just thinking about it.

Ginny made a childish face and only after checking to see that nothing interesting was going on around them where they sat at a table in the middle of library did she return to doing her homework. Restlessly tapping her foot on the ground, Ginny dipped her quill in the inkpot and continued on her essay while Hermione tried to tune out the annoying noise.

"Did he blush, Hermione?" Ginny looked up from her homework again, grinning again at the thought of what Hermione said had happened.

"Ginny!" Hermione gave her a pointed look, and Ginny sighed while she closed her textbook and rolled up her piece of parchment. It happened so often that Ginny no longer to any offence to being kicked out of studying with Hermione.

"I think I'd rather go flying for a bit anyways. See you in the common room later. Unless you're still drowning in textbooks and ink, of course." Ginny smiled good-naturedly, gathered her things in her arms, and waved before leaving the library.

_Finally._Hermione stretched her arms out, sighed, and then began working with a vengeance, hoping that if she got everything done tonight then she could just relax the whole night before the dance. Immersing herself into her work, Hermione's eyes narrowed in concentration, her shoulders hunched a bit as her body tensed up with the effort she was using to finish all of her work.

Until a hand on her shoulder startled her so much that she shrieked and tore a hole in her parchment.

"Oh _no_…" Hermione almost whimpered. Turning her head, she scowled at Harry's surprised face.

"Sorry, Hermione! I called your name twice so I just thought you were ignoring me." Harry pulled his wand from his pocket, glanced around to be sure Madam Pince wouldn't see (even though he was seventeen, Madam Pince still scared him), and pointed his wand at the parchment, "_Reparo._"

"Thanks, Harry." Hermione sighed and hoisted a pile of books from the chair beside her so that Harry could sit down, "I've just really been trying to get all this work done tonight."

"Well the library closes in ten minutes so you might have to keep working back in the common room. I'll help bring books if you need them all…" Harry offered politely, though the look on his face betrayed his hope that all of the dozen or so books wouldn't have to come back to the common room with them.

Hermione smiled; "I've got all the information I need, you can help me put the books back on the shelves though."

"Brilliant!" Harry smiled, relieved. Hermione got up to start putting books away, but Harry grabbed her arm and pulled her back to her seat, "Hold on, I was thinking of um—well, there's just this…can I run something by you?"

"As long as it's not about that letter." Hermione had narrowed her eyes in annoyance, but when Harry assured her emphatically that it wasn't about that at all she was totally perplexed, "What's going on?"

Harry sighed, and after trying to start explaining a couple of times, he glanced around cautiously before taking a small, dark velvet box from his pocket. Hermione's eyebrows raised and her mouth dropped open when he opened it up and presented a gorgeous ring. After second of going through stunned shock, she reached for the ring only hesitating to give a puzzled look to Harry.

"It's not for you, Hermione." Harry rolled his eyes.

"Just making sure…" Hermione said defensively as she carefully took the ring from its place and examined it closely.

Made from silver or platinum or something of that colour, it had a dainty band that got wider as it got closer to the center stone, which was beautiful peridot in a large square cut. Two smaller squares of diamond rested on either side of the centerpiece, and they all glistened gloriously.

"It's white gold with her birthstone in the middle. Do you think she'll like it?" Harry looked anxious, examining Hermione's face to make sure she wasn't lying to make him feel better.

"Who?" Hermione asked.

"Ginny, of course! I was thinking I might give it to her after the dance." Harry looked even more anxious now, especially since Hermione hadn't really said anything about the ring yet.

"Harry, is this a promise ring?" Hermione looked up at Harry with wide eyes, and the way he was biting his lip answered her question. "Oh my."

"I'm moving things way too fast aren't I? Oh man, I'm horrible at this." Harry snapped the box shut and brought a hand up to cover his mouth in distress.

"Harry!" Hermione laid a hand on Harry's arm reassuringly and nodded genuinely, "She will absolutely_love_this."

Harry took a deep shuttering breath, and a childish smile overtook his face, "I hope so."

Neither of them noticed the tall red-head who stalked out of the library then, not waiting to see how Harry took the ring back, placed it in the velvet box and deposited it into his pocket before helping Hermione return all of her books.


	7. RunIn With the Element of Surprise

**The Colour Pink**

Chapter Seven

I do not claim ownership of anything in this wonderful world of Harry Potter.

"I'm so sorry, girls!" Hermione cried as she rushed into the Great Hall at 10AM on the morning of the dance. She couldn't believe it. After insisting that the transformation of the Great Hall from cafeteria to ballroom start at 8AM sharp, she was the one to wake up at ten o'clock!

"Hermione, go back to bed!" Emily, the closest Prefect, shrieked as she clutched a clipboard tightly to her chest.

Hermione was about to retort indignantly for being addressed (As Head Girl) in such a way, but her brown eyes were caught up in the splendor of the room. A stage black as night with the same colour backdrop stood where the Professor's table usually was, and arranged in a half-circle around the dance floor were circular tables, covered with black table clothes, each seating eight. The prefects were in the process of securing black slipcovers with pale pink sashes onto each chair, while other prefects were distributing pale pink napkins, and black place settings with the same colour pink as accents. The older prefects were setting afloat transparent globes that let off a slight pink glow, suspending one over each table and an array of them around the dance floor. It was the most classy, elegant, romantic, and untraditionally set up Halloween Dance Hermione had ever seen.

"This looks wonderful." Hermione breathed, and suddenly became aware of her unbrushed hair and wrinkled clothes in the midst of the beauty.

"Seriously, Hermione, we're alright here. Go and rest that head of yours." Emily was looking genuine, even though Hermione had no idea why she was being so nice, or even what it was for.

"That's very nice of you Emily, but I need to be here for when the band arrives, and Dumbledore told me that I should look over—"

"Hermione, Draco's got it. It's ok." Emily cut in reassuringly. Hermione gave such a bewildered look that the younger girl kept explaining; "He told us about your migraine, Hermione. We knew you've been working hard lately but we didn't know it was that bad or we would have not bugged you as much. Anyways, he said you forced him to come in your place."

Hermione's eyes narrowed. Despite it being the sweetest thing Draco had ever done for her, she hated being falsely accused. Emily seemed to be pondering something, and after making sure no one was close enough to hear, she leaned in;

"Just between us, Hermione, I know you'd never force him to come in your place. I just want to know how you got Draco to be sweet on you."

"What?" Hermione's eyes widened, and she searched Emily's face for any trace of sarcasm.

"I never thought Malfoy would ever cover for someone just to give them a break. Ever! If you can't see it, please open your eyes. He's hot."

"Emily, looks don't matter!" Hermione blurted the first thing that came to her head.

Emily scoffed; "Of course they don't. Have a good day, Hermione!"

And with that, the younger girl was off answering a call for help. A call for help that Hermione didn't have to worry about. How awesome was that? After taking one last awestruck look around the room, Hermione wandered out of the hall and back towards the Gryffindor common room with a smile on her face. _Thank-you, Draco Malfoy!_

"Hermione!" Ginny's voice sounded from somewhere behind her just as the brown haired girl was about to say the Gryffindor password. Quick footsteps sounded, and when Hermione turned around Ginny was standing there, eyebrows raised seriously, "If you have anything to do today that you want to get done before getting ready for the ball, do NOT go into that common room."

Hermione, for the second time so far in the short time she'd been awake, looked utterly confused. Ginny took her by the hand and pulled her away from the common room entrance while explaining;

"Lavender and Partvati are almost willing to give a monetary reward to anyone who finds you and brings you to them." Ginny giggled, and then shook her head, "They think we need all day to do this makeover thingy."

"It's true! We _do_need all day!" Lavender stated, having just stepped out from behind the portrait with Parvati close at her heels.

Hermione, still in shock over Malfoy's gesture and the state of the Great Hall, only stopped and turned partially while sending a pleading look to Ginny.

"What could possibly take _all day_?" Ginny demanded, hands on her hips as she turned fully to challenge the girls.

"We have a couple possible makeover ideas to run by you, Hermione. And then the time it takes to do it, tweak it, teach you about makeup, get ourselves ready, then make sure you're good to go…we want to do it right the first time." Lavender explained calmly, and Hermione was surprised that they wanted to run their ideas by her first, that was definitely an improvement from Potions class.

"And if we don't get it right the first time we need time to fix it." Parvati said lightly, as though it was supposed to be encouraging.

"I don't want to be stuck up in your dorm all day!" Ginny argued, Hermione agreed silently.

"Neither do we!" Lavender exclaimed, "we were thinking the three of us could get all of the stuff we need and bring it to your common room, Hermione. Unless Malfoy will mind."

"No, that's actually a really good idea. Draco's going to be busy all day and it would certainly be more comfortable—"

"—and less boring." Ginny offered.

"—in my common room." Hermione finished, again surprised by Lavender. It seemed that the Gryffindor 'It' girl had been doing lots of thinking on this. The Head Girl looked from Lavender to Parvati, both of whom had gone awkwardly still, "What?"

"Draco?" Parvati questioned, a slight smirk on her face.

Hermione understood. _Oops._She hadn't meant to call him Draco out loud. Narrowing her eyes and trying not to turn pink, Hermione defended herself; "Draco, yes. Draco Malfoy. That is his name, you know."

"We know, Hermione. Now go take a shower and I'll bring these two and all of our stuff to your common room." Ginny instructed, waving goodbye to her friend and ushering Lavender and Parvati back towards the Portrait Hole to be sure they wouldn't make any more remarks about the Draco thing.

"Thank you, Ginny!" Hermione called. And boy, did she mean it.

Because she was somewhat dreading the makeover, Hermione proceeded to take the longest bath of her Hogwarts career. She spent forty-five minutes waiting for all the bubbles to clear before she finally got out and dried herself off. She wandered slowly back to her common room, the same thought that haunted her during her bath still stuck in her head;

Did Lavender and Parvati even know what they were doing?

"Alohomora." She spoke to the wall and then trudged slowly up the five stairs and through the heavy wooden door into her common room. Her head was bowed as she recalled the self-pleased look on Draco's face when he'd come up with that as a password. With a shake of her head to clear that thought from it, Hermione looked up.

The sight that met her eyes temporarily stunned her, for there was a stack of about four leather bound books on the table, and three more splayed out and open to specific pages as Lavender was pointing to something in one of the books and seemed to be explaining something to Parvati and Ginny, both of whom were looking over her shoulder. Hermione just watched, her hair still dripping, until finally Ginny looked up and beckoned her over.

"Finally," the redhead chided good-naturedly, "we'd thought the raisin had pickled by now."

"What are all these?" Hermione asked as she came over, ignoring Ginny's silly comment while her questioning look deepened. Initially she assumed they were researching for a project of some sort, but when she got close enough to see some of the titles (_Beauty Through the Ages; A Study of Wandwork for the Unattractive; Bewitching the Body_) a weird feeling arose in her stomach.

"For the makeover." Parvati explained shortly with a wave of her hand, "Didn't Ginny tell you they were intense spells?"

"Well, yes, she mentioned it, but I thought maybe you were just going to go by what you've read in those magazine…" Hermione rambled lamely as she observed the books closer, this one was written by the same author of the 'Standard Book of Spells' series!

"Hermione, this isn't a slumber party makeover." Lavender looked slightly hurt, as if she were offended that the Head Girl hadn't taken her seriously.

"I know!" Hermione answered with convincing wide eyes. Parvati pulled out a chair and faced it away from the table as she urged Hermione to sit down. Ginny giggled knowingly, and Hermione shot her a mild glare as she set her shower things on one of the couches and sat on the chair. Lavender presented to her the three different possible plans she had been thinking of, and after one was chosen (quite easily, as it was by far the one Hermione liked best) they got started.

"There." Lavender stepped away from Hermione to survey her handiwork. Parvati snapped one of large books shut and nodded her approval as Ginny's eyebrows raised impressively. Tentatively, Hermione raised a hand and brought up to feel her hair…well, it felt different, that was for sure. It felt softer, and it was so smooth that her fingers could run through it with hardly any resistance at all. Excited with a touch of anticipation, Hermione reached for a table mirror but froze mid-reach when all three other girls cried out, "No!"

"It's the element of surprise!" Lavender chided as if Hermione should have known, and Parvati nodded her agreement vehemently.

A million thoughts raced through Hermione's mind that challenged their logic, the most intense one demanding; _What if I hate it?_It was a good thing that Ginny could pretty much read the Head Girls' mind, or else Hermione might have never lasted the day with Lavender and Parvati. The red-haired sixth year had flopped down on a chair opposite Hermione and rolled her eyes;

"Honestly, Hermione. If they did something that looked bad, do you really think I wouldn't say anything?"

Hermione was torn. Ginny undeniably had impeccable taste, but the Head Girl always knew what was going on, if not in complete control of the situation. Heaving a sigh with her lips pursed and eyes squinched a bit to portray to Ginny exactly how much trust she was laying on the girl's shoulder, Hermione nodded her consent.

It was a hard afternoon to experience for a girl who had been rooted in the belief that you needed to be happy with who you were. She had pitied Eloise Midgen in fourth year for trying to curse off her acne because she wasn't happy with her looks. But now Hermione herself was going through all this, did it make her a hypocrite? How would everyone react after the ball when Hermione didn't return to her regular old bushy-haired self? What if Malfoy hated it? …What if Malfoy loved it? Butterflies started somersaulting in her stomach at the thought that she would be jeered at and teased more for this. What if they called her fake? What if she couldn't keep it up? What if, what if, what if?

"Am I hurting you or something?" Lavender asked, pausing in her work on Hermione's cuticles. She went on when the Head Girl's eyebrows narrowed in confusion, "You've been grimacing for the last half hour."

"I'm just nervous." Hermione admitted with slight embarrassment.

"Relax, it won't be _that_huge of a change, you were already somewhat pretty before all this." Parvati stated what she clearly thought was a compliment with a smile. Ginny rolled her eyes and Hermione laughed as she decided she would take that as a compliment.

At three in the afternoon Ginny complained loudly that she was hungry while all the other girls were trying to disguise the rumblings of their stomachs.

"Well, we're about two hours late for lunch." Lavender mused while she looked in one of her books to be sure of the wand movement needed for the spell that would lengthen Hermione eyelashes.

"I'll go to the kitchens then." Ginny offered freely, and she rolled off her spot on the couch to head towards the doors while muttering; "Before all this pink gives me a headache…"

"You know where the kitchens are?" Parvati asked skeptically in the middle of trying to decide what colour should go on her nails.

"Hello," Ginny turned before she headed out the door to raise her eyebrows at her doubter, "Fred and George's younger sister, here…"

Hermione giggled, but stopped quickly when Lavender gave her a stern look, "Hold still, Hermione! I don't want to spell your eyebrows by mistake. Just imagine, dancing with a handsome boy and he whispers in your ear, 'Hermione, what lovely long eyebrows you have!'"

"Sorry." Hermione harrumphed as Parvati laughed uncontrollably.

Before long (even though it felt like _hours_to Hermione) Ginny returned with a plate heaped with sandwiches, croissants, bagels and a small pitcher of pumpkin juice.

"Gin, you're a lifesaver!" Hermione exclaimed, not noticing when her red- headed friend only gave a forced half-smile instead of offering her usual witty reply.

She did notice, however, when the sixth year set down the plate a pitcher and retreated off to the side to quietly concentrate on her hair. She offered maybe two words voluntarily from then on, and though Hermione was itching to ask what was wrong she was trying to wait until Lavender and Parvati weren't there in case it was something private.

"Alright, let's go get our dresses on, girls!" Lavender squealed finally, Hermione was almost in physically pain for not being able to see what was wrong with Ginny especially since neither of the other Gryffindor girls had noticed that something was the matter.

"Oh, you two go ahead," Hermione urged to Parvati and Lavender, "There really isn't room for the four of us to change at the same time, Gin and I will go in when you're finished."

Obliging without a second thought, Parvati and Lavender hopped up the stairs and into Hermione's room and finally Hermione's question burst forth;

"Ginny, what's wrong?"

Having been staring with unfocused eyes into the common room fire and her hair done perfectly, and her face made up, Ginny looked like the confused version of Juliet the exact moment she finds out Romeo is the son of her enemy. Eyes sliding quickly back into focus, the girl looked mildly towards Hermione, "Hmm?"

"What happened when you went into the kitchens?" Hermione urged gently.

"Oh, ran into Ron is all. You know," Ginny gave an unenthusiastic laugh, "I thought Ron was over this whole 'Protective-Brother' role."

Hermione gave a bewildered look, and Ginny went on.

"He told me not to go to the dance with Harry, and then he said I'd just better not talk to him anymore at all," Ginny's eyebrows narrowed, "and he was serious, Hermione. There's no waving this warning off."

Hermione's mind raced, what was Ron playing at? Had Harry told him about the ring and Ron was reacting by freaking out about it? Would he willingly wreck what was probably going to be one of the most memorable nights of his only sister's life? No, this would not do at all. Shaking her head, Hermione hurried over to Ginny and crouched down beside her chair so that she could put a comforting hand on Ginny's arm.

"Ginny, don't listen to Ron. I don't know what he's up to but I will talk to him about it when we find each other at the ball tonight. Harry's been raving about this night for so long, you have no idea how excited he is, Gin." Hermione raised her eyebrows and nodded to show her sincerity, and then she smiled greatly, "Just have fun tonight, ok? Don't worry about Ron."

A smile broke through her friend's worried look, and she turned her grateful gaze to Hermione, "Thanks, Hermione."

At that precise moment a muffled word was heard, and the girls shared confused looks until the sound of the door to the common room slowly squeaking open startled them into action.

"He can't see me!" Hermione breathed, almost in a panic because Draco Malfoy was about to enter the room. For some reason she'd forgotten that he would be back eventually. After all, he needed to dress for the ball too.

"GO!" Ginny yelled and demanded at the same time. Bringing with them only what was in reach, they turned and dashed across the room, up the stairs, and barged right into Hermione's room.

Draco stepped into the room in time to see a glint of red hair flying into the Head Girl's room before the door was fairly slammed shut. His mild expression turned into one of annoyance when his grey eyes lowered to survey the mess that was now the Heads' common room. Books lay scattered everywhere, as well as make-up cases, nail polishes, someone's wand, and even crumbs lay scattered on the floor were tell-tail signs that the empty plate on the table had once been filled with food.

Sneering, the seventeen year old shook his head as he made his way through the mess and towards his room, "Girls."


	8. Fool Any Friend Who Ever Knew You

**The Colour Pink**

Chapter Eight

I do not claim ownership of anything in this wonderful world of Harry Potter.

After adjusting his mask, the tall boy rested his left hand on the hilt of the sword hanging off his left hip before narrowing his grey eyes and surveying the scene before him as if he were searching for someone. He wasn't really, though, he was just standing near the entrance to the Great Hall and observing as the students wandered into the made-up room and sat down. After all, the doors had opened at seven as promised, and the Weird Sisters' first set was scheduled to start in ten minutes at seven thirty on the nose. He didn't bother himself too much at having felt that he were looking for someone, because he was, after all, looking at everyone coming in; he surveyed their costumes (or lack thereof) and watched with pride as they gazed about the room in awe. Especially since he had spent the whole morning and most of the afternoon making sure everything was taken care of for tonight.

Tensing up for a moment, the Head Boy watched as a haughty Pansy entered the room dressed up like a cat and then sighed in relief as her alert eyes swept over him unseeingly. At that moment he became undoubtedly glad that he'd chosen to wear a costume rather than his regular dress robes.

A knight wearing a silver mask then walked into the hall rather anxiously, and Draco was happy to note that not even _he_ carried a sword.

"—and I'm not even going."

"And whose fault is that? Certainly not mine. Let _go_." Draco watched with interest as the owner to this voice struggled her way into the hall. He sneered with distaste when he saw that it was Ron Weasley, still in his regular school uniform, who had grabbed hold of the girl's arm and seemed to be trying to lead her away from the dance.

"I'm your elder, Ginny, you need to respect my wishes!" Ron argued lamely, and Draco almost started with shock as he gave the girl a closer look. He would never have guessed that the girl hiding behind the simple white mask was Ginny Weasley. Sure, she had red hair; but it was stacked up on her head with messy elegance, and small glittering stars had been distributed throughout. And her princess cut flowing white gown was divine, not to mention the dainty wings sprouting from her back.

"I don't have too if they're unreasonable!" Ah, there it was. That tone of voice could belong to none other then Ginny Weasley, Draco mused. "Let go. _Now_."

The knight that had entered the room a couple minutes before had turned and confidently marched up to the rival siblings. Ron then glared hard, turned red, let go of his sister and barged from the hall while the red-haired Angel stood on her tiptoes to give her knight a Thank-you kiss.

Concluding that the knight was Harry, Draco almost felt the need to applaud Ron for finally seeing that Harry was a git…even though he didn't know why Potter's sidekick would think it.

_Where's Hermione…_ Draco wondered mildly, and started searching even before he could stop himself. Quickly realizing his stupidity, the boy narrowed his eyes and brought his gaze back to the entrance resignedly as more people entered.

His heart almost stopped at the sight of her.

Her off-white mask had an intricate design on it, and ended at the bridge of her nose, resting on her cheekbones. Her lips were pursed slightly, the gloss tempting him with surprising intensity. She was pushing aside her fringe side bangs as she entered before dropping her slender fingers back down by her side. Her dress was dusty rose in colour, complementing her lightly tanned skin gloriously, and glittering sequins or jewels(Draco couldn't tell which) covered the dresses' straps and outlined the mildly plunging neckline of the dress, and then swirled their sparkling way down her front to fade out once they reached her waist, which gave way to a flawless gown of shiny pink satin.

She turned to look behind her quickly, giving Draco a glimpse of her stunning light brown hair that cascaded to the middle of her back in soft, lush curls. That backwards glimpse also showed him something that made his face flush unexpectedly. The straps of her dress seemed to almost loop around her shoulders, connecting again with the dress under her arms and left her back uncovered. Her back looked strong, smooth…

The best part was that he knew it couldn't be Hermione. Her hair wasn't this long, and she definitely didn't have curves like this girl. But the dead give away that proved it wasn't Hermione was that the gorgeous dress was pink. Draco smiled, _Perfect._

-

Any doubts or worries were wiped from Hermione's mind as soon and she slipped into the dress. It must have been something about how the cool material felt against her skin, or the way the dress settled on her body that made her look like a model. Whatever it was, it caused the girl to make her way to the Great Hall with her head held high.

Because she'd followed a couple of minutes behind her two helpers, she'd missed the whole ordeal between Ron, Ginny, and Harry. But she hadn't missed angry Ron, whose face and step faltered when his narrowed eyes saw her.

"Woah—" And he grinned stupidly. Hermione bit her lip to hold in a giggle as she smiled: Ron hadn't recognized her.

With a smile on her face Hermione walked into the Great Hall and then paused as she pushed aside her new side bangs. Wait a second, why wasn't Ron dressed for the ball? Without noticing the open stares she was attracting from many of the masked men in the room, Hermione turned back to search for Ron. She didn't see him anywhere.

"Ron's not coming to the dance?" Hermione asked Ginny and Harry after she'd waited for them to finish their canoodling.

"Nope!" Ginny cheerily stated with a smile. Harry shrugged and nodded, portraying that he didn't know why their friend was being such a prat. Too preoccupied to notice Hermione's down trodden face, Ginny announced, "I'm thirsty!"

As if one cue Hermione heard a voice from behind her. Turning, she found a masked boy in sleek black dress robes holding two glasses.

"Excuse me, miss. But you must be parched. Being so beautiful must wear you out."

Blushing but confused, Hermione gave a tentative smile before shaking her head slightly, "No, I'm fine actually. My friend is thirsty though, thank you!"

Ignorant of the three shocked faces surrounding her, Hermione took the offered glass and handed it over to Ginny. It was when she glanced towards Ginny's face to give her a smile that she noticed their looks.

"What?"

"I can't believe you, Hermione!" Ginny squealed after the boy had retreated dejectedly, "Can't you tell when a boy is trying to hit on you? Granted, that was the worst pick up line ever—but really!"

Hermione's eyes widened and she quickly glanced back to look for the boy as Harry sniggered with amusement, "What?"

"Nevermind that now. Just, listen—" Ginny said with half a smile and then paused to take a sip from the glass in her hand, "Boys are going to be approaching you all night, ok? If they offer you a drink, take one from a guy you think is cute and then talk to him. When they ask you to dance, same thing. Only the cute ones. And, say yes to the pirate."

She'd been listening whilst Harry had gone off to get himself a drink. But with that last statement came a bewildered look from Hermione. With a bang the Weird Sisters started off with their first song, and Ginny had to speak up.

"Don't look now, but he's by the entrance. Hasn't taken his eyes off you since you walked in. Tall, cute—" at this point Harry had returned and given Hermione a happy grin before he pulled Ginny onto the dance floor. Ginny only had time to call out, " See you soon!"

A pang of apprehension hit her stomach for the first time that night, and Hermione bit her lip as she watched the Knight and Angel start to dance. But she didn't have to worry even for one full moment, because as soon as she was standing by herself a boy tapped her shoulder and asked for a dance.

"Dance? Dance! Yes, thank you." Unfortunately, Hermione had forgotten to even look at her partner, because she didn't notice until he'd lead her to the dance floor that he was at least a foot shorter than she. But she braved the entire song with him…though admittedly she was determined not to look up for fear that Ginny would be somewhere close by laughing at her.

Thankfully as soon as that dance ended another boy, this one dressed as a vampire, asked her to dance. Grateful that the new one was taller then her, Hermione accepted with a smile. She changed partners just about every song, not once noticing the casual line-up of boys that was forming to ask her to dance because instead her brown eyes were intrigued by the pirate Ginny had pointed out earlier, for he hadn't moved one inch since the dance started.

Quickly enough she learned that the boys in Hogwarts were filled with horrible pick-up lines, and none of them had the sense to realize that dancing nonstop made one thirsty. So she went for about an hour and a half on her feet with nothing to drink, until finally:

"Excuse me." Hermione and her current dance partner, whose dancing technique looked more like controlled convulsions, stopped short and looked towards the man who had spoken. It was the pirate, and Hermione couldn't help but smile. He was holding a drink in each hand, and was surveying her with intense eyes before stiffly addressing the other boy.

"Thank you for keeping my date company, sorry to have to cut in like this—"

"You haven't been around all night!" The boy insisted almost with furious defensiveness, and Hermione's eyebrows rose.

"I was having a bit of a costume crisis. There was a horrible spill over at the punch table." Said the pirate curtly to the boy before offering an arm for Hermione to take. "Shall we off, m'lady?"

With an amused look on her face, and hardly a glance towards the angry boy(or the line-up of other angry boys), Hermione took the proffered arm and one of the drinks. She had it downed before the pirate had even led her off the dance floor to one of the tables.

"What took you so long?" Hermione urged boldly as the pirate sat opposite her and offered her the other drink he held.

"I told you, there was a spill at the punch table." He said this lightly, with a soft smile playing around his lips.

"What I mean is, you've been watching me all night…" Hermione had to tear her eyes from his soft looking, full lips when she said this, probing him for some explanation.

"I never caught you looking at me." His eyes widened in what the girl hoped was amusement, and she blushed in response.

"What can I say? Masks are good at hiding things." She bit her lip after this bit of teasing, feeling exhilarated because this mask was somehow giving her the courage to say things she usually wouldn't dream of.

"Hmm." He seemed intrigued with the answer, and nowhere near satisfied, "I think perhaps yours is too good. Do I know you?"

"Of course." Hermione saw him start with what seemed to be anticipation, but when her lips twisted into a playful grin and she went on, he shook his head, "We do attend the same school. And if you're a seventh year then we probably even share classes."

"I musn't be a seventh year then, because I've never noticed someone so beautiful in any of my classes." He said this with such clear honesty that Hermione was struck by it.

"Forgotten what year you're in? How convenient." Luckily she was already in a playful mood, especially since this grey-eyed pirate had saved her from the horrors of dancing with the Hogwarts masses.

"It's not my fault, your eyes are hypnotizing." He said this with a half-smile, and Hermione had to return it.

"I suppose you've forgotten what house you're in as well?" She feigned regretfulness as she asked this.

"An unfortunate side effect of being hypnotized. Although I might be compelled to remember if you would tell me yours." His voice was steady, low, smooth, and sure. Hermione was drawn in by the game they were playing, by the ease at which they could bout words off to one another, and by his powerful eyes…which somehow looked familiar.

"I'm sorry. It seems we're suffering the same type of memory loss." She said mischievously, after a long agonizing moment where she had almost told him what house she was in.

"How regrettable. Will you dance with me?" He'd noticed that Hermione had finished both of the drinks, and their hands were in the middle of the table, itching to reach out to touch each other.

"I would love to." Hermione said as she smiled brilliantly. The pirate's smiled widened tremendously as he stood and took her hand with what might have been relief. His eyes twinkling behind his mask, he turned and led her back onto the dance floor. And that's when she noticed it.

He had a black bandana covering most of his head, but when he was faced away from her, she could see tufts of hair poking out from the bottom—white blonde. How had she not noticed before? That, the grey eyes, the stiff politeness, the refusal to be embarrassed…she was entranced with Draco Malfoy.

She didn't know if her heart was racing in exhilaration or fear.

She almost let go and fled before they started to dance, but it was too late and he had turned around, putting an arm securely around her waist. His grey eyes glazed over with concern at her shocked expression, and that was what melted her in the end. He was concerned—he hardly even knew her, and he was concerned. Her shock let go, and his concern faded as they instead shared a sort of secret look of understanding. It had almost been like that time in Potions class when she's been preoccupied and yelled out 'Pink' for the answer, and Draco had shared with her that look of understanding.

It was something new. Something she loved. It was a look that she wanted to share with someone every day. If Malfoy had looked at her like this every day, there was no way that they would hate each other like they did. But then, that was the problem now wasn't it? Draco didn't know that she was Hermione Granger.

"I was waiting for your date."

"Pardon me?" Hermione was too busy gazing and thinking that she really hadn't heard what the PirateDraco had said.

"That's why I waited so long," He drawled out openly, "it was hard to believe that someone like you would show up to a dance without a date."

"Sometimes I think it's better to let fate work her own magic." Having no idea exactly where this line had come from, Hermione herself was stung by the truth to it. Still in shock that Malfoy would be saying these sorts of things to her, Hermione decided it might be better for her to keep talking, "and anyways, the boy who was supposed to meet me here has gone off his rocker. He won't tell me why he's angrily ignoring me."

"Clearly you did something wrong." The pirate stated in the absolute confident way of Draco Malfoy, though he didn't say it meanly.

"I did no such thing!" Hermione still felt that she had to defend herself rightfully, and ended up blurting out something she probably shouldn't have, "if you knew who I was-"

"Then who are you?" The pirate challenged with fierce hope. Hermione surveyed his eyes intently for a good few seconds before deciding that she didn't want to give the poor boy a heart attack.

"No one of consequence."

"I shall have to hunt down fate then, and thank her." Malfoy offered this line, which had a very high risk of sounding cheesy and clichéd, with such purpose that Hermione couldn't help but wonder what had happened to the Draco Malfoy she had known and …hated. Nevertheless, she gave him a smile and they settled into a comfortable silence.

"So, how come you aren't wearing a costume?" This question came from Draco five minutes later, and Hermione giggled at the pure curiousness of it.

"I stopped looking when I found this dress." She offered bluntly, and by the look showing on her dance partner's masked face she knew that she'd done the right thing. Tilting her head curiously, Hermione then asked, "How come a pirate?"

"Are you kidding?" Was Draco's immediate reaction, and he huffed as if she should know already, "I get to wear a sword."

His last statement was pronounced loudly with such childish pride that Hermione couldn't help but burst out laughing, and Draco sputtered a bit defensively, "Seriously though, when else would I be able to wear a sword?"

Oh, what a night. 


	9. Seething Shadows, Spinning Lies

**The Colour Pink**

Chapter Nine

I do not claim ownership of anything in this wonderful world of Harry Potter.

Or Phantom of the Opera.

**Just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who is enjoying this story; whether reading it for the first time, following it, or favouriting it. But a very special thank you to the few of you who have taken a second to review. I love to hear your guys' thoughts about things! About how ridiculous somethinng is, how in or out of character people seem to be, if you enjoy a particular moment or if there's something about it that's just annoying—I am open to any and all thoughts you have! So please continue to enjoy in whatever way you like, but feel free to leave me any thoughts, theyare always welcome. Thanks again! **

"So, you don't like Care of Magical Creatures because of…peacocks?" Hermione wondered with a half smile.

"It's just the principle of the thing! If a bird that gorgeous can bruise your left buttock, then just about anything else could kill you." The pirate was confidently defensive, passionate about explaining himself because he knew that he probably sounded crazy.

"Oh, you poor thing." Hermione said in between hidden chuckles. The two had taken a break from dancing and were wandering amidst the tables, holding hands and talking as they went. Somehow talk had come to least favourite classes, and this ridiculous truth had come out. Draco Malfoy was pretty much afraid of animals.

"That's why I like flying brooms. They have no mind of their own, no 'secret agenda'." He was half smiling himself by now, almost in disbelief that he had shared this secret with a girl he'd just met—he didn't even know who she was.

"I don't know about that. I've only tried flying three different times, and each time it was like I had to_wrestle_ with the broom for it to go where I wanted."

"That's because you weren't thinking like the broom."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll ever have the same thought processes as a _Nimbus 2000_ or a _Stardust 360_." She raised her eyebrows, though unseen because of her mask, and then giggled when the pirate rolled his eyes.

"That's not what I _meant._"

"You need to explain yourself more clearly." Hermione said lightly, as if it would solve everything.

"No, what I need," the pirate stopped, pulling slightly on Hermione's hand so that she stopped with him and they turned to face each other, "is to know your name."

Hermione didn't say anything; her brown eyes were surveying his softened gaze as his free hand had come up and pushed some free strands of her hair behind her shoulder. This is what had frozen her: that same hand was now rested lightly on her neck, just under her ear, and his thumb was caressing her jaw line slowly. Suddenly she realized that he was leaning towards her slowly, and her eyes fluttered closed in anticipation until she felt his breath on her ear.

"Before the night is up, I will know it." He pledged, and then his soft, hot lips pressed themselves gently against her cheek. Shifting once more, those same lips, now trembling, hovered just over her own trembling lips. But just as they touched Hermione gasped.

"Let's dance." She was blushing, flushed, warm, her heart was racing uncontrollably—she needed time to think. Draco Malfoy had just voluntarily kissed her.

"Draco Malfoy! Draco! Draco Malfoy!" A voice urgently called, weaving its way closer to the dancing couple. Hermione urged with her eyes for him to ignore it, but when the voice screeched in recognition Malfoy turned. Eyes narrowed, the boy continued to hold his dance partner's hand as he surveyed who turned out to be a frantic Emily. "I'm sorry to bother you, but you see I couldn't find Hermione—I don't quite know what to—"

"What's wrong." Malfoy maintained through Emily's nervous rambling. The girl wrung her hands together before saying:

"Ron Weasley's attacking Harry Potter on the front steps of the castle."

"What?!" Hermione shrieked, startling both Malfoy and Emily before leading the way off the dance floor, out of the Great Hall, through the Entrance Hall, and onto the front steps of the castle. There they found that Ron had grabbed Harry by the collar and had him pushed up against the stone wall while Ginny was doing all she could to get Ron to let go of Harry.

"What d'you think you're playing at, doing this to my sister—Gin! This is for your own good!" Ron's red-face yells shifted from Harry to his sister in a moment of annoyance.

"Just Let-Him-Go!" Each of Ginny's infuriated words was accompanied by a strong to kick to Ron's ankles.

Harry, in the meantime, his mask awry on his face so you could see where tender skin around his eye started to puff up already as blood trickled from a cut on his already swollen lip, was weakly trying to loosen Ron's grip on his shirt, "C'mon mate, just lemme go—"

"You would think that after all he's been through, Potter might remember to carry his wand with him." Draco noted with slight amusement from his place behind Hermione, and the Head Girl turned back to glare at him. Quickly turning back to the scene, she tried to take hold of Ron's arm.

"Ron, leave go of his shirt." She demanded authoritatively, but Ron just cast her a blank look as he said:

"Stay out of this."

For one moment it was as if he'd slapped her in the face, until thankfully Hermione remembered about her makeover. But the fact that Ron hadn't even recognized her at all was still jarring. Narrowing her eyes in determination, Hermione tore her mask off so that she could sternly glare at the red-haired boy.

"I said leave go, Ronald." Hermione persisted, and a surprising series of looks overtook Ron's face: anger, to bewilderment, to confusion, to recognition, to awed shock, and then finally to total and complete lividness. The last face hit Hermione so hard that a plead for help sounded in her voice when she then called for Draco:

"Malfoy, your assistance please."

Draco was glad that his mask helped to cover up his surprised face, because it was in that moment that it finally registered that the girl was Hermione, and had been Hermione all night long. Heart almost stopping with that revelation, Draco had to quickly regain composure before he went over and wrestled Ron off of Harry (unfortunately, Draco had also left his wand in his dorm room, _and_ forgotten about the sword at his hip).

Once let go, Harry sank to one knee with one hand on the ground to steady himself while the other carefully removed his ruined mask. Hermione rushed over and crouched by him, holding his arm as a means of support while Ginny could only look on in concern because of the strong grip that was holding her back. Somehow Ron had managed to free one of his arms from Draco's hold to grab hold of her arm.

"Of course, Hermione's come to Precious Harry's rescue." Ron spat irately.

Hermione, Harry, Ginny, and Draco all had similar bewildered looks on their faces, and Harry angrily demanded, "What is your problem, Ron?"

"Oh, stop being so innocent! You Know!" Ron raged, "You know! Sneaking behind our backs like that!"

Ginny glared at her brother while Hermione sighed. Shaking her head, she asked, "What are you on about?"

"The Ring!" Ron screamed unnecessarily loud. Harry and Hermione froze, and Ginny only paused for a moment before wondering exasperatedly, "What ring?"

"He knows about the ring?" Hermione tried to say this quietly to Harry, but the tense silence allowed everyone to hear. Ron smiled triumphantly when he noticed Ginny's eyebrows narrow.

"What ring?" Ginny insisted harshly.

"The one Harry had Hermione fawning over a couple nights ago in the library!" Ron announced, happy to note that his sister had stopped trying to pry herself from his grip as she sent an unhappy confused look towards Harry and Hermione.

Draco watched with peaked interest as Hermione stood, her eyes narrowed stubbornly as she looked at her friend; "Ginny, it's not—"

"What do you have to say for yourself?" Ron cut Hermione off as he loudly addressed Harry, who managed to look genuinely sorry despite the wounds his friend had just given him.

"I'm sorry I didn't talk to you before I spoke to Hermione."

But Ron was unsatisfied, "And my sister? When were you going to tell her?"

"Tonight." Harry's tired eyes practically bled honesty, "I was on schedule until you showed up."

"I can't believe you. After all we've been through—" Ron trailed off, too angry to continue for a moment, "—I can't believe you'd get her all excited for this and then just let her go."

"Wait—" Harry stopped Ron for a moment. Shaking his head and realizing that someone was missing something, Harry eyed Ron, "What?"

"Hermione Potter does have a nice ring to it though, I suppose." Ron went on nastily.

"What?" It was Hermione's turn this time to realize that something was amiss, and frustrations clouded her reasoning so that she couldn't figure out what it was.

"I can't believe you! Leading me on like that, like some—harlot." Ron vented. Hermione gasped, Harry glared, Draco's grip on Ron tightened considerably while Ginny still stood there, confused. Without hardly an thought Ron turned his focus to Harry; "And you! Feeding all that to my sister and then having a—an affair with Hermione, of all people!"

"Stop talking about Hermione like that." Draco seethed unexpectedly, and the Head Girl promptly sent a bewildered look towards the boy.

"Great! You've even seduced Malfoy." Ron was purple with rage. Eyes narrowing, Hermione was clutching her mask with a white-knuckled grip, her free hand fisted as she glared at Ron, but at the last second her intense eyes shifted.

"You're not helping, Draco."

A furious look overtook his unmasked eyes and bade the Head Boy argue with indignation, but he instead jostled Ron roughly and carefully slid a veil of rigid calmness over his eyes, reasoning that he could take this up with Hermione later. Especially since Harry was shaking his head and saying:

"You think I gave Hermione the ring."

"Well, didn't you?" Ron's furiousness faltered a bit.

"Why would I? Hermione's like my sister." Then, despite the unromantic atmosphere, Harry drew a ring from his pocket. With fierce confidence, overlooking the fact that he was still on one knee because he hadn't the strength to stand up, he held the ring out to Ginny and gave her an honest look.

"Ron misunderstood. I only showed Hermione because I was afraid this would scare you away. The truth is— I love you, Ginny Weasley. I love you, and I know we're to young to marry but I promise that one day I will ask you to marry me. And this ring—" Harry paused to catch his breath, "—this ring is a symbol of that promise. And I was sort of hoping that you would take it, and wear it, and promise to say yes once that day comes."

Hermione held her breath as she watched Ginny. The girl had one hand covering her gaping mouth, the other filled with a fistful of her dress while her eyes shone brightly. A brilliant smile lit up her face when she nodded and made to move towards Harry. But she froze mid-stride, turned to glare at her brother (who Draco had released when the boy had wilted in embarrassment), and then whacked him hard on the shoulder. Her smile returned and she spun, running to Harry and falling on her knees in front of him when she got there.

Forgetting the ring for a moment, Ginny threw her arms around his neck and finally found her voice; "I love you too, Harry! Yes, of course I promise!" And when she finally pulled back, Harry slipped the ring onto her right ring finger.

Had Harry not been injured, and Hermione not felt stung by Ron's words, it would have been a perfect moment.

Startled by a sigh sounding from somewhere behind her, Hermione whirled around to find Emily leaning against the doorframe. "Oh Emily, I'd forgotten you were here…"

"I don't blame you." Emily said ruefully, and then smiled, "Beautiful ending though, eh?"

Hermione agreed as she peeked back to find that Ginny was gingerly planting kisses on Harry's bruised face.

Pirate-Draco then made a move to go past Hermione and into the castle, but Hermione caught his arm, accidentally dropping her mask in the process.

"Draco, wait. Please, I just—"

The grey-eyed glare from behind his mask for some reason hit her harder than any other time he'd glared at her. Hermione recoiled, quickly drawing her hand from his arm. Wide-eyed and brow furrowed with worry, Hermione stood stubbornly under Draco's long glower. Wishing with all her heart that she could scream out anything, Hermione tried to portray her regret, reasoning, and longing through this one critical moment.

But either he didn't see it, or her refused to, because he leaned down as if to tell her a secret and lowly but purposefully whispered, "Don't ever touch me again, you ungrateful hypocrite."

The only good thing that Hermione could see about this heart-wrenching situation was that Draco had turned away fast enough so that he hadn't seen the tears welling in her eyes. Horrified and mortified because Emily had witnessed the entire exchange, the Head Girl covered her face with her hands, regretting with all of her heart that she'd gone through with the makeover.

"He didn't mean it, not really." Emily insisted, putting a comforting hand on Hermione's shoulder. But Hermione wasn't so sure. Emily sighed and then continued, "Maybe we should get Harry to Madam Pomfrey or something—before a professor gets here."

Hermione nodded absently, uncovering her face and looking up to where Draco had gone as she wiped away her tears. That was true enough, where the flip had the professors been throughout that whole ordeal? Sighing, and trying her hardest to push aside her regret and pain, Hermione turned.

And there stood Ron: tall and blushing with her mask in his hands. Clearing his throat, he offered the white mask to her almost reverently. It was a peace offering, an unspoken apology. But for some reason it only broke down the indifferent façade Hermione had just been trying to create. Eyebrows narrowing dangerously, Hermione snatched the mask from his hands fiercely. Shaking with rage, the girl's brown eyes welled up with tears again, and because she was trying to keep them from flowing freely, her hateful words were said thickly:

"Why can't you communicate with people like a normal person? Or do anything right for that matter?!"

Ron reddened, eyes narrowing as he wordlessly pushed past Hermione and Emily to enter the castle and head straight for his dorm room. Trying to control herself, Hermione shakily fitted her mask back onto her face, surprised when she shuddered with relief.

The shock of the realization was what ultimately halted her tears: she felt safe behind her mask.

"Hermione." Emily cautiously said, and Hermione looked over at the girl as she finally mastered the look of calm apathy.

"Go back to your friends, Emily." Hermione continued, cutting Emily off before she could start, "I'll take care of Harry's wounds. Enjoy the dance, you worked hard for it."

Emily bit her lip but stopped trying to argue. One expression of gratitude and an encouraging smile later, the girl had turned and started on her way back to the Great Hall. Hermione focused back on Harry and Ginny, hoping that all the drama hadn't affected them. She knew that the couple had been happily preoccupied in their own little world when Ginny looked surprised to see Hermione there, and then held up her hand:

"Look, isn't it gorgeous?"

Hermione nodded with as much genuine sincerity as she could muster before she approached them and borrowed Ginny's wand to fix Harry up quickly.

Hopefully he would patch up easily and they could return to the dance without anyone noticing. Sighing, Hermione started her work.

-

Some hidden part of Draco Malfoy knew that he shouldn't be this mad at Granger, but his thoughts were still fuming as he re-entered the Great Hall. Did she realize how much he was sacrificing by even just looking at her without glowering? Pansy had been disgusted with him, and Blaise wouldn't even talk to him anymore.

Defending her meant risking everything, even if hardly anyone had been there to see it. Jaw tense, the boy stayed away from the dance floor but looked on earnestly, as if he were searching for someone to yell at. But his fellow students were having too much fun jumping around and singing along to the Weird Sisters that no one was doing anything reprimand-worthy.

He found himself glancing to his left often, where the entrance to the Hall stood not far away. It was just after the lead singer announced that the next song would be their last for the night that Hermione finally entered, followed close by Potter and little Weasley. A sort of cruel satisfaction set in when he noticed that the Head Girls shoulders were scrunched forward, and her head was bowed slightly as she walked. That was not the walk of a happy girl.

_Serves her right._ Draco thought with a glare as one hand returned to rest on the hilt of his sword. Deciding spontaneously that he didn't want to be anywhere near her at all, he angrily stepped towards the mass of moving people.

"Watch it!" He hissed when he bumped into someone, but at that moment he really didn't care. Weaving through the students on the dance floor, Draco tried to suppress his anger by barking reprimands left and right. And he didn't stop until the last note of the Weird Sisters' song had been played.

"It's been great fun, you're a good crowd. Have a good night!" The lead singer finished with a flourish, waving and smiling while trying to catch his breath as the students cheered for the band. He then followed the rest of his band mates off stage, but was stopped when he was halfway down the stairs.

Curious, Draco craned his neck to try and see what had stopped the man, but the dim light and bad angles only let him catch glimpses of a form. Well…at least he knew it was human. Eyebrows still narrowed, he watched as the lead singer nodded, and then turned and hopped back up the stairs, striding back to the mic.

"Hey there—just back with a message for Mr. Harry Potter." The lead singer looked out towards the crowd as he gestured towards the stairs to the stage, "Your sister's looking for you."

Anger forgotten, Draco's eyebrows rose under his mask, "What the hell?!"


End file.
